WomenCinemakers, Special Edition, Vol.31 by WomenCinemakers

w o m e n FERNANDA MARTINS LIN LI CARMEN ROJAS GAMARRA ERIN BROWN LUNGA YENI MAARIT SUOMI-VÄÄNÄNEN CARLA FORTE KEREN NECHMAD MARY TRUNK KATE CONNERTY Rand Beiruty

INDEPENDENT Erin Brown

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Contents 04 Kate Connerty

142 Lunga Yeni

Nothing Gold

DREAM CATCHERS

168

Mary Trunk

Erin Brown

Muscle Memory

Pick Up

188

Keren Nechmad

Carmen Rojas Gamarra

214

Do You Think I Meant Country Matters?

Carla Forte

BRUJAS / WITCHES

Lin Li

Hurricane

Swika and Its Home

112

248

Maarit Suomi-V채채n채nen

Fernanda Martins

In a Musty, Misty Thicket

Maraj처 das Letras

Women Cinemakers meets

Kate Connerty Lives and works in Seattle, USA

Nothing Gold follows the story of three generations of women and their disconnection as they attempt to cope with the imminent loss of the grandfather.

An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com is a captivating short film produced by Seattle based writer and director Kate Connerty: shot with elegance and inventiveness, her film offers an emotionally complex glance on everyday life's experience, demonstrating the ability to capture the subtle dephts of emotions: we are

particularly pleased to introduce our readers to Connerty's captivating and multifaceted artistic production. Hello Kate and welcome to : we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and you hold a BA (Hons) in Practical Filmmaking (MA (Hons) in Business and Producing, that you received from the Met Film School, in London: how did

this experience influence your evolution as a filmmaker? Moreover, could you tell us your biggest influences and how did they direct the trajectory of your artistic research? Sometimes, I think to myself... if I could do it again, would I? Sometimes I do, considering how young I was when I moved to England from America. I was 18. Moving overseas alone was an experience in itself, and I am still evolving and forever will as a creative. My biggest influences came not only from an accumulation of trauma and hardship, but from a few family members who took me in as their own, believed in me and mentored me. While there were rules and boundaries in my home and school life, I was a bit of a rebel â&#x20AC;&#x201C; I tried to figure out how far I could bend the rules. I am furiously curious about life, and I believe in order to be curious you must commit to the quest. My family allowed me to commit to that quest, and for that, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m indelibly grateful. For this special edition of we have selected

, a captivating

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short film that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. We have been fascinated with the way your clear and effective approach to narrative provides the viewers with such an , enhanced by elegant composition. While walking our readers through of , could you tell us what did attract you to this particular story?

Sadly, Nothing Gold is based on a true story. I was half-way through my MA program at the Met Film School and my grandfather had gone into the hospital for some testing as he wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feeling well. Within days, I received that dreaded call. He was passing away. I flew home (from London to Boston) and I sat by his side, holding his hand, through his remaining hours. Unfortunately he was in a medically induced coma, so there was a loss of really not being able to say goodbye. In the film, I played with the idea

of his character going in and out of conciousness, as I wish I was given the chance to speak with him one last time. My grandparents raised me, and my mother has always been more of a sister figure and I wanted to really showcase this unique dynamic in the film, three generations of women.

Elegantly shot, features stunning camera work and each shot is carefully orchestrated to work within the overall structure: what were your when shooting? In particular, what was your choice about camera and lens? Our cinematographer, Beatriz Sastre, was

like a breath of fresh air. I believe her (and Krystenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s) ability to empathize with the subject matter allowed for an easily discussed aesthetic. I am a huge fan of Richard Linklater, Terrence Malick and Lars Von Trierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work. We had some mood boards in place and film references. The idea was to really hone in on the

subtleties of the characters and their surroundings. I chose for us to use a Arri Alexa with Cooke S4 lenses, as I love the soft, dream-like quality they evoke. We have particularly appreciated that though your inquiry into the personal sphere of your characters seems to be , yet your film strives to

be full of emotion: what was your preparation with actors in terms of ? In particular, how would you consider the relationship between the necessity of scheduling the details of a scene and ? How much importance does play in your cinema? There were some rehearsals off-site and then a walk through at the location (which was tricky, as it was a running hospital!) I believe (for this film especially based on itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s true story nature) that allowing the actors to tap into their own similiar traumas can evoke a profound and moving performance on screen. I like to think I put a lot of trust and creative control into Krysten (our director) and our actors that I cannot even recall what was improvised and what was not.

In your film you leave the floor to your characters, finding an effective way to walk the viewers to develop between their own inner spheres and the characters. We like the way you created

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entire scenarious out of : what are you hoping selected will trigger in the audience? While film is a form of escapism, I am hoping that Nothing Gold triggers a sense of relatablity. I look at Nothing Gold to be an extended hand reaching toward the audience, looking for someone to hold. We live in a culture where death is still seen as taboo, not talked about. How does fuel your creative process to address your choices regarding the stories that you tell in your films? Our lives are mostly filled with small, mundane subtleties. These everyday quietly passing moments usually go unnoticed. But, in the big picture, the way we arrive at any transition, obstacle, what have you... they are all filled so effortlessly by these tiny experiences, however noteworthy. In an ever-evolving technological landscape, I fear more and more that these

subtleties are becoming lost, and with that loss, we are losing understanding of ourselves and the world around us. The way I work through my grief and/or confusion, conflict, etc is through creative expression. Doing so is a form of catharthis for me. With its brilliantly structured storytelling imparts unparalleled to the narration, to unveil an ever shifting internal struggle. We have particularly appreciated the way your film gives to the viewers the sense they are watching : would you tell how did you develop the script and the structure of your film in order to achieve such ? With Nothing Gold being based on a true story, I did a character study on my grandmother, my mother and even myself. I was having trouble seperating such a raw uncomprehensible event into a story, so I reached out and worked

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Women Cinemakers alongside an incredibly talented classmate of mine, Krysten Resnick, from the Met Film School to direct and co-write the piece. I contextulized and we bounced ideas off eachother but she really was the driving force for putting the script together while I produced.

Marked with captivating , the soundtrack by Nathan Neuman provides the footage of with : how do you such consider the role of sound within your practice and how did you structure ? They say you can forgive a bad image with good sound but not a good image with bad sound. Being thrust into a world of sensory overload, I think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important (with a film of this nature) to strip back to the essentials and add in only to enhance, not overwhelm. The director, Krysten, worked closely with Nathan (our composer). I trusted her creative process, so I left them to their own devices. Before leaving this conversation we want to catch this occasion to ask you to

express your view on the future of women in cinema. For more than half a century women have been from getting behind the camera, however in the last decades there are signs that something is changing. Do you think it is harder for women artists to have their projects green lit today? What's your view ? on While I do believe it is harder today, I believe this does not just apply to filmmaking, but across a wide range of careers and pursuits. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m proud to say that the majority of the crew, especially all heads of department on this film, were women. The future, for anyone or anything, is quite uncertain. I only hope for more inclusion, equality and perservence to be ahead for the future of women in cinema. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Kate. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your

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future projects? How do you see your work evolving? Unfortunately, I will admit that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been in a bit of a creative drought while Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been settling into my new relocation to Seattle. Recently, though, I did just go back home to (sadly and painfully) help my family close the chapter on the family home. I documented the move and in addition, found roughly 35 tapes that my grandfather filmed dating back to when my mother was pregnant with me until my middle school years. I hope to make a visual short film out of the archival footage and my documented footage, a second part to Nothing Gold if you will, like the real-life aftermath effect from his passing. An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com

Women Cinemakers meets

Mary Trunk Lives and works in Los Angeles, California

Mary Trunk started as a painter, became a dancer and choreographer and has been making films for over 20 years. She spent seven years filming four mother/artists for her most recently completed feature length documentary Lost In Living. The currently released short documentary The Past is in the Present:At Home with Gunther Schuller is about the Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Gunther Schuller. Mary is also working on an interactive website called This Woman’s Life that will feature stories about the invisible women in our lives and what they can teach us about survival and living life to the fullest. Her newest hybrid documentary project, Muscle Memory, focuses on memory, age and the desire to keep dancing in some form or another. Mary and her husband are founders of Ma and Pa Films, a video and film production company. Mary also teaches film and video at Mount Saint Mary’s University, Loyola Marymount University and Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, CA.

An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com

Hello Mary and welcome to : we would like to invite our readers to visit in order to get a wider idea about your artistic production and we would start this interview with a couple of questions regarding your background. You have started your artistic career as a painter, became a dancer and choreographer and you have been making films for almost 20 years: are there any experiences that did particularly influence your artistic

evolution? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum direct the trajectory of your artistic research? When I started college my ambition was to be a painter. I had some skill and I enjoyed that creative process. Or I thought I did. Perhaps I was immature or didn’t understand how to access the tools to sustain a visual art career because I was continually frustrated and uninspired in my studies. By chance I happened to catch a student dance performance in my dorm dining hall. The dancers were wearing street clothes and most of their movements were pedestrian in nature. I was transfixed. What they were doing didn’t seem too far off from my own skills as a dancer. I had

danced in high school and was also taking non credit dance classes in the PE department of my university. I felt compelled to find out more about the dance department and how I could be a part of it. At the dance department audition, one of the instructors whispered in my ear, â&#x20AC;&#x153;where have you been,â&#x20AC;? and a few days later I was accepted into the UCSC dance program. It changed my life in ways I am still discovering and experiencing. Hence why I am making a dance documentary about that period. One of the more unique aspects of the dance department was that we were required to choreograph - a lot. It was not just about acquiring technique and performance ability, we made work all the time. It was encouraged and it was a priority. Ruth Solomon, the head of the department, understood that we were artists as well as dancers. She brilliantly invited some of the most innovative dancers, choreographers and teachers to be guest instructors - Gus Solomons, Jr., Betty Walberg, Robert Ellis Dunn, Meredith Monk, etc. We were exposed to many kinds of dance techniques and many ways of composing and choreographing dances. Robert Ellis Dunn was one of the founders of the Judson Dance Group. Meredith Monk introduced us to sound and voice. Gus Solomons, Jr. brought his own version of Cunningham technique and Betty Walberg opened up all possibilities - for me personally. She is probably the most influential teacher I have ever had. Betty was a musical arranger and composer. The only time I know of that she actually choreographed was for the original Oompa Loompas in the movie Charlie and Chocolate Factory. But she knew how to teach it and she know how to provide structures, constraints, music and ideas to push us into a rigorously creative space. She also was acutely perceptive at acknowledging where we needed to grow and recognizing what we could do well. Her influence was really the basis for me to value my artistic process and contribution and to continue to make work for the rest of my life.

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Women Cinemakers I left Santa Cruz and moved to San Francisco where I directed my dance theater company for about ten years. I began to incorporate other mediums into the performances - voice, props and then film and video. When I look back now on some of that work, I realize that I was primarily concerned with creating frames within which work could be seen. Composition and what is in the frame and what is outside the frame brought me back to some of my visual two dimensional painting. The idea that fragments of bodies and objects can appear and disappear within a frame and can trigger one’s imagination became very exciting to me and that’s when I focused my work more on film. I shoot my films over the course of many years and I film a lot of material. I work to establish a trust between myself and my subjects that allows them to be vulnerable and reveal their innermost thoughts and feelings. My first documentary film, The Watershed, accomplishes the difficult feat of taking a subject that is quite personal—the story of my family, my parents’ divorce, my mother’s alcoholism and virtual abandonment of her children, and the strategies my siblings and I resorted to in order to survive— and shaping a film that resonated with a wider audience. Plain Art and Lost in Living, both feature documentaries, simultaneously raise big questions about art and gender expectations for women artists: what does it mean to be a mother and an artist? Is it okay to feel conflicted about the competing demands of family and art? How does society evaluate mothers as artists? As my good friend and writer, Stephanie Bower put it far better than I could: “All of these films have in common their ability to take seemingly simple or ordinary subjects—a family’s unraveling, the choices women make as they navigate identities as mother and artist, how dancers age—and illuminate how each radiates out to bigger, more universal questions and issues: how do we make sense of our histories? What paths are available to us? How do we create

meaning within our lives? Each is distinguished too by Mary’s technical and aesthetic expertise, craft and art united to both create images unforgettable in their beauty and tell stories that resonate long after the screening. But what most defines them is their ethos, constructed from Mary’s commitment and connection to her subjects. There’s a trust between filmmaker and subject that manifests in every shot and in every editorial choice, so different from the exploitation and sensationalism all too common in the genre.” I strive to discover the private but universal themes of family, creativity and identity in all of my work. I have an eye for detail and the patience to allow a project to unfold over months and years. I respect my subjects

and allow them space and time to convey their individual and collective truths. For this special edition of selected

we have , an extremely interesting dance

short film that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article and that can be viewed at

What has at once impressed us of your insightful exploration of the interstitial area where memories and physical feelings is the way it highlights the multilayered nature of dance and choreography: when walking our

readers through the genesis of , would you tell us how did you develop the initial idea?

same thing. One of my former teachers called that time, “the golden period.”

I am interested in making films through an intimate and emotional storytelling lens. I am also keenly fascinated with the creative process. My experience as an undergraduate at the University of California at Santa Cruz in the early 1980’s was an incredibly fertile time. The freedom we had to choreograph and experiment was unlimited and yet it was also a disciplined and structured period. I worked hard, harder than I have ever worked. And I loved it. I felt as if I had found something in myself that was truly mine and worthy. I also felt as if my fellow friends and dancers may have experienced the

Not only was I given this opportunity to be an artist but I was in a setting that was not judgmental. Yes, we were critical, observant and curious but I never once felt that I was doing anything foolish or ridiculous - although I sometimes wonder now if others outside our circles may have thought it was. We were emulating performance artists, 60’s dancers and experimental theatre work. We used spoken word, elaborate costumes, pedestrian movement mixed with folk dancing. We performed on rooftops, in parking lots and on crowded downtown streets. We worked with and for each other as

often as we could. We were like sponges and absorbed everything we could see, feel and hear. All the instructors encouraged us, directed us and applauded us. They pushed us to explore ideas, music, movement and choreography with a rigorous energy and intelligence. Having spent far too much of my life lacking a healthy self esteem and sometimes even wondering if I deserved to be on the planet, this experience seemed to practically erase almost all doubt that I was unworthy. I was taken seriously and could explore ideas that I found exciting. And I was able to do it without the voice of the inner critic telling me I either wasn’t allowed or I was doing something stupid that no one in the world would care about. The best part was that people there cared quite deeply and something shifted in me. Something that has fortunately stayed with me all my life. I had been thinking about how to make a film about that past experience. I said in the beginning I am fascinated with the creative process and I wanted to find out if my friends and fellow dancers were still motivated to be creative and how that time influenced their lives. Did it spark something in them that has stayed over the years? Are they still using those creative tools we used so many years ago? I know I am and I wanted to know if they were and if they weren’t, why not? This idea has been percolating for many years. When one of our friends, Leslie Swaha died suddenly a few years ago it occurred to me that we were not getting any younger. If I wanted to have people dance and I wanted them to be alive, I should start now. It is also such a unique time in terms of how we are perceived by the rest of the world. After turning 50 I suddenly became invisible. I was mistaken for my daughter’s grandmother and one of my colleagues’ mother. People began calling me Ma’am and asked if I needed help putting my groceries in my car. And I am in pretty good shape physically. But my hair is graying and the

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Women Cinemakers lines on my face are deeper and more pronounced. I asked myself, what would it look and feel like if I asked my dancer friends in their 50’s to dance again. What would they say when I asked them about our past and their experiences then and now? What does it mean to be middle aged and remember what it feels like to move your body, to dance with other people, to perform? Can we ignite those same feelings from our youth? Do we need to? Can we accept that we have aging bodies and still dance? Muscle Memory is a dance video/documentary hybrid that traces my friends at a school with no grades in Northern California as they develop confidence, work & success, beginning in the mid-1980s & continuing up to the present moment. It is a poetic documentary about the power of memory and the intersection of what a mind remembers and what a body feels. It is a hybrid film about my former life as a dancer and a choreographer and how that world became integral to my identity as a filmmaker. I invited former dance friends to participate as dancers and as interview subjects. I will contrast the lives they have now with the lives they lived when they were in their 20’s. This project is an investigation into how meaningful dance was for us then and whether it still is now. It is also an opportunity to find the joy in dancing once again. Muscle Memory is unsentimental in its presentation of the artistic life’s challenges, which include physical changes and emotional tensions. Indeed, the act of working together again revives questions about memory’s reliability and the limits of the body’s strength. Dancers who haven't danced for up to 30 years have learned choreography and perform for the camera. The camera itself is another dancer in the work. The documentary

will be a combination of poetic dance video and documentary storytelling. Muscle Memory is about people who have not lost the capacity, desire and curiosity to be creative and continue to participate in a social and artistic dialogue. Because the aging body poses so many challenges for dancers and because we don't regularly dance now, the film will explore the meaning of "middle age" in all of its complexity. The subject's stories are not without serious setbacks and challenges, as they navigate the need to be creative with their own mortality. We have appreciated the way you have provided your short film with such a poetic quality, capable of establishing emotional involvement in the viewers: what were your aesthetic decisions when shooting and what did you aim at triggering in the spectatorship? The way I approach a dance video shoot is that I bring in movement ideas either in writing, pictures or an improvisation score. In a score I set up structures and constraints like walking patterns, movements from one’s morning routine, sports photos etc. and the dancers create phrases within those. I then spend time watching what they have come up with and I give them variations, suggestions and ideas. With the help of the dancers, we come up with a vocabulary and language that is specific for the video. The more the movement becomes familiar and in the dancers’ bodies I can see how it instills emotion in them. Certain types of movement and sequences elicit different narratives and interpretations. The dancers come up with this through doing the movements and interpreting them in their own way. They don’t really tell me in words, they tell me in their movements and in how they dance with each other. Do they look at each other? Do they touch someone’s shoulder? Do they fill the empty spaces

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Women Cinemakers someone creates? From there I translate what I’m seeing and make decisions about locations, costumes, formations, partnerships, music, etc. The movement informs how I film the dancers. And in turn it also informs the editing. With the help of my editor and collaborator, Caren McCaleb, we figure out how to create poetic montages that represent the physical and emotional movements the dancers express. I strive to create an experience for viewers that triggers their imagination. When I watch screen dance I surrender to the atmosphere, the sounds, the motions and the tone in a way that allows my mind to conjure its own story. The tempo of the movements, the way they are arranged and juxtaposed with one another, the variations in speed and composition has a physical and emotional sensation for me. I hope it’s like reading a poem. You are given just enough to make your own connections and meaning but not too much that you are bored or lose patience. As you have remarked in your director's statement, is a personal memoir about your previous life as a choreographer and dancer and the experience of creating and performing dances again in middle age: would you tell us how important was for you to make a personal film, about something you knew a lot? I have always made films about subjects that are personal to me. Often I am searching for answers to questions I have about what I am experiencing in my own life. In The Watershed, my first feature, I wanted to know how my family lived with the trauma of our past and our parents’ abandonment. I’m not interested in a therapeutic exercise. I’m interested in how stories can help us understand our place in the world and how relationships with others can give us insight about ourselves. Because I spent a lot of time interviewing family members, I found that I had a better understanding of why they are who they are. The experience from The Watershed definitely helped me to become a better listener and a more compassionate

filmmaker. In many of the rest of my films, I want answers to why and how people live their lives. What makes them able to get up every morning and create? I have those same questions for myself. Muscle Memory is a project I have been ruminating on for years. As I mentioned earlier, the period of time I focus on in the film, was a pivotal moment in my life. It was when I realized I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need permission to be creative. And it was when I also learned how to be creative. I wanted to go back to some of the ideas and techniques I had used as a choreographer in the past and see if they would work again. Would dancers be as free and spontaneous? Would they understand my approach as they did years ago? Would our aging bodies still have the capacity to emote and even move? Could we find meaning in dancing again? All of these questions I asked myself and the dancers in the film. It was extremely important for me to revisit a time that changed my life. I wanted to know if I could do it. If it still excited me. In some ways I needed to go back to that creative approach. Maybe I needed to restart things, feel new again. And I do. We have appreciated the way brings the nature of relationship between the body and its surroundings to a new level of significance, unveiling the ubiquitous bond between the individual and outside reality. In particular, has drawn heavily from the specifics of its environment, highlighting the resonance between nature and human body: how did you select the locations and how did they affect your shooting process? I asked each dancer to show me locations or spots that were important to them. I also asked them if I could film in their homes. I wanted to juxtapose their movements with the familiarity of their intimate surroundings and the natural environments they visited. I also made a point of visiting each of them where they lived,

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Women Cinemakers interviewing, choreographing and dancing in their own neighborhoods, places they walk their dogs, backyards, parks and city streets. I wanted to start with places the dancers knew and get them used to moving. During the summer of 2015 I arranged for the dancers to join me for five days in Santa Cruz where we had attended UCSC. We had full use of our former dance studio and the woods and countryside surrounding the school. It was a reunion of sorts and definitely gave all of us the opportunity to remember dancing together and to recapture how we did that. I was quite moved by how easily we all understood the language of dance and the camaraderie and intimacy of dancing together. It was important that we experienced that for the film. A year later some of us gathered together in Oakland, California for four days to dance together again. We filmed all around San Francisco and the Bay Area. San Francisco was where I had my dance company for ten years. All of the dancers who came to Oakland had been in my company at some point in time. Again, we were able to recapture the intimacy of moving with each other. Now that I look back on the chronology of filming, I think the sequence of beginning with the dancersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own homes and backyards helped them move into dancing again with a bit of caution and at a slower pace. To see how it felt and whether they could do it and even like it. Fortunately most of them loved it. They had missed doing it. As we continued in other locations that love of dance just grew. I would choose a location and the dancers would find a way to incorporate the essence of the place into their movements. The locations became another dancer in a sense. features essential cinematography with a keen eye to details and we have really appreciated your successful attempt to capture the resonance between gestures

and the environment: how do you consider the relationship between space and movement playing within your artistic research? In particular, how do you consider the relationship between the necessity of scheduling the details of the performance and the need of spontaneity? And how importance does improvisation play in your process? One of the great gifts of working with these dancers is that they have not lost their sense of spontaneity or improvisation. They can easily take a sequence I’ve provided and make it their own and incorporate ideas I couldn’t even imagine. I truly believe that because we spent those years in Santa Cruz creating work, we have been able to do that in all aspects of our lives. Back then and even now I can provide an improvisational score or outline that these dancers can understand and work with. They don’t just provide me with what I expect, they go beyond. They have ideas and it is more of a collaboration than anything else. So, yes, improvisation is incredibly important to the process. I rely on my collaborators to help me shape what is going to be filmed. They see opportunities and come up with ideas based on the movements they create and how they work in relation to the movements the other dancers create as well as the environment they are moving in. It is because of their process that I can react and respond with my camera. Many artists express the ideas that they explore through representations of the body and by using their own bodies in their creative processes. German visual artist Gerhard Richter once underlined that "it is always only a matter of seeing: the physical act is unavoidable": as a multidisciplinary artist deeply involved in dance, how do you consider the relation between the abstract feature of the concepts you explore in your artistic research and the physical aspect of your practice? I think the abstract and physical are intertwined. Ideas in art can be expressed to initiate a physical response in me, whether it’s a painting,

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Women Cinemakers a poem, a novel, music or a dance. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s when I think the art is successful. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not always interested in the literal meaning of the work. I want a visceral response in myself and my audience. Dance is the perfect medium to offer that experience. The abstractness of bodies moving in a dance language and the actual physicality of it, can be profound encounter. The awareness of communication on that level is unavoidable if one truly accepts it. The soundtrack by Caren McCaleb and David Shohl provides the footage of with such an ethereal atmosphere: how do you see the relationship between sound and movement? David Shohl is a dear friend who I met at Santa Cruz. He and I both worked on a performance of The Bacchae while in college. I was the choreographer and he was the musical director and composer. We definitely clicked and I have always found his compositions inspiring, intelligent and innovative. His way of working is also similar to my choreographic techniques. I will allow the dancers to interpret my outlines and words and then incorporate those interpretations into the overall film and David has used similar ways of working. He provided many, many compositions for my dance work when I had my company in San Francisco and we established a long standing working relationship. Since the beginning of Muscle Memory, David and I have discussed the dance videos, the characters, the movements and the locations. He has a keen understanding of my work and we have an almost unspoken way of collaborating. The fact that he understands how the movement is created, what the movement is and how locations are chosen definitely informs what he creates in sound. Much like the collaboration with the dancers, David also brings in new ideas and sounds that are unique and intriguing and add an element of mystery and nuance to the pieces that I love and need. Caren McCaleb has provided some wonderfully rhythmic sound to Muscle Memory. As the editor of the piece she has a unique viewpoint on the pacing and tempo of the dances and how she will edit them.

Her music ideas and choices are crucial to the process. She has an intimate view of the work and often surprises me with combinations that add complexity and poignance that I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see. Besides your career as a dancer and a filmmaker, you also teach film and video at Mount Saint Mary's University, Art Center College of Design and Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA: how does your experience as a teacher fuel your creative process? And in particular, did you ever get inspired from your students? I love teaching. I feel as if Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m in a constant state of curiosity and learning. Because I am fortunate to teach film and video, which is the medium I use in my own work, I am engaged with new ideas and approaches from all directions. My students inspire me with the personal visions they pursue - narrative film, documentary, screen dance, editing. I also spend a lot of time researching the subjects I teach in order to be up to date on the newest developments and innovations. That not only helps me be a better instructor but it helps my own work. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Mary. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I just finished a documentary project with Caren McCaleb called Chroma. This project was a collaboration between abstract painter Margie Schlossman and composer Lisa Bost-Sandberg and it premiered at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo,North Dakota, in 2018. The film, following in the spirt of the project, showcases both the eight pairings of painting and music, as well as the individual participants, rehearsal and public performance. An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com

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Women Cinemakers meets

Keren Nechmad Lives and works in New York City, USA

A woman walks into the shower. Throughout the mundane tasks she explores her thought and imagination. Suddenly leaves fall transforming her into another world in the woods. She is brought back by her exploration of her sexuality.

An interview by Francis L. Quettier

as a filmmaker? Morever, how does your direct the trajectory

and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com Hello Keren and welcome to : we would start this

of your artistic research?

My studies at the School of Visual Arts gave me the opportunity to experiment. I could

interview with a couple of questions

have an idea for a film on Monday, write the

regarding your background. You have a solid

script, get a crew, equipment and shoot the

formal training and you have studied at the

following weekend. I was able to do all of that

School of Visual Art, in New York City: how

and film anywhere in NYC. Most classes

did this experience influence your evolution

require you to film in or for class. Every shoot

is an opportunity to learn and fail. I believe I learn the most from my mistakes. The more films I made, the more I learned how I like to work, whom I enjoy working with, how to direct others and what is my style. I grew up in Israel, the youngest of three daughters so that influences a lot of my artistic choices. For example, the film

which I

made after 'Do You Think I Meant Country Matters?' is about an Israeli woman living in NYC. Ani in Hebrew means Me. Although it is not really about myself, it has so much to do with my identity as an Israeli woman and my experience in a foreign society. For this special edition of we have selected , an extremely interesting short film that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article and that can be viewed at . What has at once captured our attention of your insightful inquiry into

interview

Women Cinemakers

interview

Women Cinemakers is the way it captures the expressive qualities of the body, to walk the viewers to a multilayered visual experience: when walking our readers through the genesis of , would you tell us how did you develop the initial idea? It started in the shower. I began thinking about the action of taking a shower. It's something everyone does every day and sometimes more than once. Taking a shower is a necessary activityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;your body goes through the motions automatically knowing what to do, where to go and what comes next. Meanwhile, your mind is filled with thoughts not focusing on the here and now. However, taking a shower is an intimate act, it is cleansing and exploring the body. Featuring ravishing cinematography by Paula Curry, is marked out with dreamlike qualities: what were your aesthetic choices in

Women Cinemakers order to achieve such vibrant sensitiveness? And how was the filming experience? Paula and I discussed making the audience feel as close as possible to the woman shown on screen as if they are invading her personal space. We wanted to blur the lines between reality and fantasy. With that said we also wanted contrast, the white bathroom versus the dark forest. Hot water against the frozen snow. This created an interesting filming experience. Shooting outside in the snow is not easy. It shortens the time you can spend on each shot. It was hardest on our amazing actress, Samantha Smedley, who had to bare skin in the middle of a snowstorm but at the

and reflects rigorous approach

end of the day, we managed to get

to the grammar of body language,

everything we wanted and more. Most

reminding us of Pina Bausch's approach to

important no one got sick.

: how do you consider the relationship between the necessity of

We have appreciated the way your

scheduling the details of your

approach to moving images conveys

performative gestures and

? How importance does play in your process and

write a scriptI have a specific vision on how I want the film to look, the points I want to hit

how was your collaboration with Samantha

and the movement I see. For example, bare

Smedley?

feet walking through dead leaves. However, film is a collaboration, and I love seeing how

In my process, both scheduling and

others read the script and envision

improvisation are highly important. When I

something else. I tried to give as much

freedom for Samantha to create her own moves, so they look natural and only add to what she is doing to get the choreography that I want.

: the ambience doesn't play the mere role of background and we have highly appreciated the way you have created such powerful

between

space and choreographical gestures: how has drawn heavily from

do you

Women Cinemakers forest, I wanted to explore the space. Grow from small movement, that we saw earlier, into more significant actions as if we are moving from inside out. In you sapiently mix realism of choreographic gestures with the qualities of the ambience, as well as with , and we have appreciated the way such coherent combination addresses your audience to a multilayered experience. Art historial Ernst Gombrich once underlined the importance of providing a space for the viewer to project onto, so that they can in the creation of the illusion: how much important is for you to ? And how did the locations affect your shooting process?

trigger the viewer's imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal associations? In particular, how open would

The location dictates a lot of the movements.

you like your works to be understood?

The bathroom was a tight space to shoot in, so the movement had to be minute. It is an

For me, it is so important to receive various

exploration body more than space. In the

interpretations. I believe that each viewer should

Women Cinemakers have a personal experience with the piece. I love hearing different reactions and seeing what others observe. That is the beauty in art. I have my vision and my understanding of the work, but there is no one right answer. My goal is to provide space for the viewer to relate to the character and the story. Sound plays an important role in your film and we have appreciated the way the delicate audio tapestry by McKenna Feeney provides the footage of with such an that creates an inspiring combination between realism and poetry, challenging their perceptual categories: how did you create such captivating soundtrack? And how do you see ?

I saw this film as a dance, where the sound is as important as the movement.

and the forest ambiance. I felt that music could

We started only with the sound of the water in the

piece it all together. After searching for a while,

shower and layered it with the sounds of the leaves

we found the music by Ben Parry on a music

library website, Audio Network. It fit with the

think the film should work also in silence but

mood and the world I was creating. There is a

sound completes It.

balance between the image and the sound. I

To emphasize the ubiquitous bond between everyday life's experience and creative process British visual artist Chris Ofili once remarked

that " ". How does everyday life's experience fuel your creative process?

Women Cinemakers outside of my world it finds its way in. Most of my ideas come just appear, surprisingly everyday life is inspiring. In it was as simple as taking a shower. We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic research and before leaving this conversation we want to catch this occasion to ask you to express your view on the future of women in contemporary art scene. For more than half a century women have been discouraged from producing something '

', however in the last

decades there are signs that something is changing. How would you describe your personal experience as an unconventional filmmaker? And what's your view on the future of women in this interdisciplinary field? I write and produce what I know. I steal from my world and project it onto my work. My experiences

When I decided I wanted to become a

are who I am, even if I try to create something

filmmaker, at the age of 11, I did not know how

Women Cinemakers much me being a woman matured, I just followed my dream. Only later in time, I saw there was a distinction between the opportunity for men and woman. I saw that most of the films that influenced me were by male filmmakers because it was mostly what was out there. Now I focus more on women bast art to get new influences. For example, from filmmakers like Ana Lily Amirpour and Andrea Arnold. I can definitely see more and more unconventional female filmmakers emerge and an acknowledgment of established female filmmakers. From a more personal level, I try to collaborate with women. On most of the crew were women, from the cinematographer, Paula Cury, to the editor, Shelby Hougui, to the gaffer Julia DeSantis and the sound mixer, McKenna Feeney. In , it was about 50/50 in the crew. I think it is essential to help one another and

Women Cinemakers

create more women jobs. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Keren. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving?

My recent film,

, as I mentioned earlier, got

accepted into three film festivals so far. I am currently working on new work, collaborating with others and in the process of writing a feature film focusing on the world dependency on technology and our on prejudice towards others. I am looking for resources to realize my vision.

An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com

Women Cinemakers meets

Carla Forte Lives and works in between Miami and Habana

Carla Forte is a film director, scriptwriter and performer. Forte is the founder and Director of Film Department of Bistoury Physical Theatre and Film. Selected as a Berlinale Talent 2017, Carla has directed internationally featured Video-Art works such as Interrupta, Official Selection at 27th Festival Les Instants VidĂŠo 2014. Her cinematographic work includes the Feature Film ANN, Official Selection 41th Atlanta Film Festival 2017; the documentary The Holders, which World Premiered at the 32th Miami International Film Festival 2015; Short films "Imaginarium" and "Reset" selected for Cannes film festival's Short Film Corner; as well as the feature film Urban Stories, Winner of Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Feature Film at Bootleg Film Festival in Toronto; and Honorable Mention at both Los Angeles Movie Awards and Lucerne International Film Festival, Switzerland.

An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com

Hello Carla and welcome to : we would like to invite our readers to visit

https://www.fortecarla.com in order to get a wider idea about your artistic production and we would start this interview with a couple of questions regarding your background. You have a solid formal training and you graduated from National Experimental University of the Arts.

Women Cinemakers

Caracas and from IUNA, National Art Institute. Buenos Aires: how did your studies inform your current practice? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum due to your Venezuelan roots and your current life in the United States direct the trajectory of your artistic research? As a multidisciplinary artist I have influences from dance, theatre and film. I try to always create a balance between them in my artistic work. I feel that each one tells a part of my story, so they always are all present. My roots are always present. I was born and raised in Venezuela so I identify as a Latin American woman. But my career allows me to travel a lot, so I also have an open perception of the world. I have been living in the US for a long time, so in my artistic work you can also feel the influences of my environment and how I bring them together with my roots.

Women Cinemakers

For this special edition of we have selected , an extremely interesting experimental video that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article and that can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/203007802/b7ad294f71. Based on the successful attempt to take every individual to the “eye” of the self, this stimulating work has as soon captured our attention for the way it invites the viewers to questions about the nature of human perceptual process: when walking our readers through of , would you tell us how did you develop the initial idea? Hurricane is an experimental video that aims to take every individual to the “eye” of the self. I decided to work on this because sometimes this is one the hardest parts of life, to deal with the inner self. I am a constant flux of influences because every day, when I go out to the street, I find

myself surrounded by strangers that always leave something within me: sounds, situations, a wholeness that helps me carry on with my day to day. I believe many of my influences derive from seeing my father cry, chasing after the dog who runs astray in the streets, the homeless person asking for money at the corner by the traffic light, the neighbor's folkloric music, my aunt's uproarious laughter, my mother singing, the lack of communication between people. Hurricane is just the result of hundreds of feelings, moments, emotions showing through the body creating a new way of communication for the self. The piece was Commissioned by Tigertail Productions. Marked out with an unorthodox visual sapiently draws the structure, viewers into what seems like fragments of a dream, providing them with a multilayered journey to challenge their perceptual categories in order to create

interview

Women Cinemakers

A still from

interview

Women Cinemakers

: how much important is for you to trigger the viewer's imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal associations? How open would you like your work to be understood? For me, personal interpretation is very important. I am only the facilitator who submerges the audience in a world that they can interpret on their own. Every individual has their own experiences so each has the freedom and opportunity to turn the work into something of their own in a way that is unique. features essential cinematography with a keen eye to details and we have really appreciated your successful attempt to capture between gestures and indoor environment: how do you consider the relationship between space and movement playing within your artistic research? Within my cinematographic work, movement is a key element for narrative and visual development; achieving a frame in motion from the image. Beyond an unorthodox narrative and aesthetic, my

Women Cinemakers

work focuses on experimenting new visual sensations through a conflict; reflecting a world of emotions that can be both very near reality and also on the side of the nonexistent, creating a parallel universe in which the palpable and the desired become possible at the same time. The space also plays another crucial role: I decide how to move depending on the space. We would like to introduce our readers to , an interesting feature film whose trailer can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/170217835. Centered on the the story of Ruben,

, is marked out with powerful narrative drive that unveils the elusive nature of relationship between the individual and outside reality: how do you consider playing with in your artistic practice? I am a dreamer, so for me this is a constant.

I like to blend reality and imagination in my artistic work. Is a good way to escape and be creative, so in that sense I can transform my own story into something magical, different, confusing, unreal, so the end result is a new version of my own story and it can both be real or not. features stunning Elegantly shot, cinematography and a keen eye for details: what were your when shooting? In particular, what was your choice about camera and lens? The Cinematographer for ANN is Sofia Oggioni, a renowned DOP. We spent time talking about the aesthetics before shooting. For ANN, it was important to keep the shots up-close to keep the tension between the characters. ANN was supported by Miami Film Development Project- The Coral Gables Art Cinema, so they kindly provided all the equipment. We shot with a Black Magic camera. For the slow motion scenes, we used a Phantom

Women Cinemakers

Camera, and received the support of MU2

appreciated the way you have created such

Productions for those shoots.

insightful resonance between the environment and the movement of human

has drawn heavily from and we have highly

body: how was your creative and shooting process affected by locations?

Women Cinemakers

The project was very limited in terms of budget,

Carolina Pagani built the set at Proplanet (Prop

so we turned every possibility into something

House), so almost everything was tightly

positive.

controlled.

The goal was always to make the movie no

We were very lucky to be able to do this at

matter what.

Proplanet last minute because just one week

Women Cinemakers

before shooting the main location was cancelled. We had to make important decisions within a window, always trying to make the best for the project. With its sapiently structured storytelling imparts unparalleled to the narration, and leaps off the screen to develop an between the viewers and the characters: what was your preparation with actors in terms of ? In particular, do you like or do you prefer to every details of your shooting process? ANN was a feature film that we shot in just five days, but we spent almost six months together doing rehearsals. For ANN, everything had been established and prepared, and we were very meticulous in sticking to the script. On the other hand, my new feature film CONEJO (Rabbit) was totally different: the general structure of the movie was laid out but

all the scenes are improvised. I feel like every project is different and depends of the way the artist wants to develop the artistic process and the project. Over the years your works have been showcased in several occasions: in particular, Ann was recently awarded as Best Foreign Feature Film, from Hollywood Dreamz Film Festival and as Best LGBT Film, Action on Film Mega Fest International Film Festival. How importance has for your the feedback of the festival circuit? Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process? It's always a unique experience to be part of a festival. The feedback from the Festival, the audiences, artists, filmmakers, is the way that allows me to also grow day by day as an artist. During my creative process, I'm never thinking about how to please the audience. I always think that it's important to express myself with sincerity no matter what.

Women Cinemakers

Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Carla. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? What's next for you? I just finished the post-production of my feature film CONEJO (Rabbit). The film shows the creative process between a director and an actress while they rehearse a play called "Rabbit". Two stories are narrated in the midst of demanding rehearsals in total isolation: The creation of a character, and the daily lives of those involved. Psychological abuse and mistreatment by the director end up bringing the actress to the point where her deepest and darkest desires seep into the character she represents: the rabbit. I hope to start the festival circuit soon. An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com

Women Cinemakers meets

Maarit Suomi-Väänänen Lives and works in Helsinki, Finland

Maarit Suomi-Väänänen works as an artist in the fields of media art and experimental film. She has a visual artist’s identity and a film-maker’s education. Suomi-Väänänen combines the expressive possibilities of visual art with the language and tools of a flmmaker. Her short films ponder social and emotional themes as well as those concerned with identity and communication. She calls her films also experimental comedies. Her video installations transform space by using other media such as photography and objects. Praised as fascinating and open to a multitude of interpretations, her awarded works have toured over 40 countries, appearing at festivals, exhibitions, biennales, and on television. Some of the venues include: IDFA Amsterdam, Just for Laughs Montreal, BIM Biennal Buenos Aires, Museum of Modern Art Kiasma Helsinki, and YLE Finnish Broadcasting Company. Her works has won two main prizes in Canada: Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal, and Toronto Urban Film Festival judge Guy Maddin. Suomi-Väänänen (1966) graduated with an MA from the Aalto University, Helsinki 2008.

An interview by Francis L. Quettier

your artistic production and we would start

and Dora S. Tennant

this interview with a couple of questions

womencinemaker@berlin.com

about your background. You have a solid

Hello Maarit and welcome to we would invite our readers to visit

training in Philosophy and you graduated with an MA from the Aalto University, Helsinki: how did this experience address

in order to get a wider idea about

your artistic research? Moreover, could you

Women Cinemakers tell us your and how did they influence your trajectory as a filmmaker? Dear CineWomenFilmmakers, I am so pleased to be part of your edition. Thank you for having my film here. I have a filmmakers education and visual artists identity. I based my Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thesis (2008, Aalto University) on photographic sketching: a useful research tool which I am utilizing in my art practice today. In it I reseached where the images are coming for my films. I wrote over 100 pages about scriptwriting a 10 minutes experimental film. I noticed that photo sketching is an important tool in finding a contextually and visually viable solution when I am writing a new fictive film. By concretely taking photos I internalise the film's visual world. During the script writing process I outline the semi lingual dialogue and half-finished thoughts, observations, feelings and pictures. At first the idea for the work is largely an incomplete fantasy representing the first crack, wound and cut into the work. I start to examine and coax this imageless state: a small digital camera functions as the medium. With the photo sketching I write and combain the space between the moving image and the text, the visual and textual performance. Photo sketching is both literal and symbolic. Actual photographing is not always a systematic and

Women Cinemakers conscious process: often a feeling or observation takes over. Because the way I work with my subjects, this is a lengthy and profound process. In my script archive there are a thousands of stills and shots. Now and again material for the exhibition is thrown out during photo sketching. These can be scenes for in which there is no room in the work in process. As I work there is a constant dialogue between the still image and the moving image as continuous debate and tension is central to the process. Two different forms of expression and fields of art inspire each other and also the spaces between the mediums provide solution models. For example, photo sketching was the genesis of one-minute haikus. I also the started my art making by taking photographs. My first art piece is a black and white photo exhibition (1991). This is a portrayal about womensÂ´ empowering project . The film came later, when images needed the move. Encouraging examples of art making have been filmmakers and artists like and

. When creating a new work I rather research other mediums than films. Complex, paradoxical and fragile mind is an endless archieve for art making. Like Â´s theory of abjection and black sun have been very comforting to me. Objects / props to be found in appear as abjects. I prefer films that I do not fully understand, there is the question mark that keeps me wondering and thinking, which is the bond to the work. My favourites can be disturbing and annoying. For this special edition of we have selected , a stimulating experimental film that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your insightful exploration of is the way your sapient narrative provides the viewers with with such a multilayered visual experience. While walking our readers through the genesis , could you tell us how did you come up with this stimulating film? The very first idea was to free the special effects from the yoke of war- and action films.

Women Cinemakers is the second in a trilogy of films in which I explore the gloomier manifestations of human emotion and experience, through black humour and the medium of cinematic special effects.

central roles, where speech is absent and inner worlds are exposed. The explosions stand for unexpressed, helpless rage. If we cannot mourn, we might take revenge instead.

I also wanted to tell about two women. Then I wanted to see badly behaving women, who are not beautifull, young, kind and flexible. Women who dare and who don´t care and women who are complex and smelly. Women, whose fundamental intention is not to please the viewer. In the film you find two women, on a summer’s day, in the middle of a forest on a desert island. is just as much about off-the-rails family dynamics as it is about feminine degeneration.

Whilst the soulscapes may be dark - otherness, depression, narcissism, alcoholism and dysfunctional families - I have chosen humour as attempts my method. to deconstruct inner worlds and psychological tensions by making use of make- up and creatures created with special-effects. The scars and the forest tick made of silicon, the artificial hair and blood; all are interwoven with observations regarding (ab)use of power, chemical dependency and narcissism. My script leaves the exact nature of the relationship of the two women unclear: they could be blood relations, home-sharers or lovers.

Special effects trilogy brings together (2009, 9min), (2012, 12min) and (2015, 10min). The common thread in this trilogy is the psychological tensions, absurdity and atavistic behaviour portrayed in each piece. A heightened awareness of one’s solitude is experienced as we journey through the metaphors of childhood, puberty and adulthood. In , like in , also abandoned landscapes play

The synopsis goes like this: Down in a mysterious, musty thicket on a deserted island,a pot is bubbling over a smoky campfire, around which Pik Mama and Missy are spending a boondocks day in the forest. Weird and uncanny things are going on... With unsparing realism, is directed with spare eye and

Women Cinemakers

: what were your when shooting? In particular, what was your choice about camera and lens?

effective

I feel like a painter mixing the colours when inviting film professionals to work with me. like whole trilogy â&#x20AC;&#x201C; I was pleased to work with the visionary cinematographer Due to low budget, she shot the film with DSLR camera with two zooms. Basically I had to take the camera that I could afford, is that a choice or a must? Cinematography is static with fix camera on tripod, like Pik Mama is fixed under the tree. Motivation for the camera is that she is the controller. I enjoy extreme close-ups and extreme long shots. In extreme close-ups we see details like skin, tattoo, forest tick, dirt, hair, smoke and sparkles in the sand; camera almost shoots from the sweat pore. Extreme close-up does not respect your space, so you can experience them as tactile. Extreme long shot gives the sense of place, the psychogeography of the landscape, the painting like home of the two ladies. All special effects are done in the location, not in the post production. This static style of filming was leading also to the style of editing. There is no invisible continuity cutting from movement to another. There is an edit point just after

Women Cinemakers the action has happened and gone already. That brings certain pressure in the cut. Character is not doing anything, but with an implication that one should be doing something. In a traumatic experience one can freeze and petrify. Features brilliant combination between unconventional landscape cinematography and a keen eye for detail, pulls the spectators into : how did you select the location and how it affected your shooting process? Scouting the location is profound because of the absence of the dialogue. If you take one expression away, you have to strengten the others. The landscape has to resonate with the characters and also raise questions by itself. The location works, when it is so impressive that I feel the danger and excitement bodily. The location used to be sand quarry which was collecting the water to form a pond. Then the water dried up. The landscape was perfect environment for my film. The shooting location itself is a paradox: a desert island in middle of the forest. After finding the location, I started to imagine the herstory of and again.

Women Cinemakers used to be sailor and was shipwrecked to this island. was born and ate and drunk for sorrow, and the island became the home and the prison. Then climate change dried to the lake, but it was too late for do not let survive from the island. Missy to leave and become independent. is not able to go and anyway wouldn´t know how. She hardly can walk. But it is at least comforting, that they have each other and shared humour. They are not alone in the world. Reality always gives surprises for fiction too. Behind the island was puddle left from the pond. death mask The narcissus scene of was born in situ in the water seen by inspired by the puddle. All trilogy parts are filmed in May. The variations of greens in the nature are so wonderfull in spring. There was a spring in the puddle too. Frogs were mating, when I was scouting the location with photo sketching. So I shot which won the at the , but it was ” ”. Despite the absence of dialogues, your film feature such an ambitiously structured

exploration of the instincts and the inner lives of the characters of Pik Mama and Missy: what was your preparation with performers Nina Renvall and Appe Vanajas in terms of rehearsal? What were the most relevant of the aspects of making of ? When scriptwriting the film, I had these two is performers in my mind. dancer and coreographer and is musician and performer. Both amazing artists who have underground minds and great body expressions. That was needed, since they don´t have words. We were reheasing before shooting, to make sure that the chemistry and body language were working and matching. Death mask was cast and costumes were fitted. Actually the death mask is the primal and the very first wound and prototype in to the film. Death mask is a primitive photo sketch without a camera. The death mask as a selfie is correlating with narcissism and vanity. The fabric and colour of the costumes are from the past: mustard-coloured quilt. The fabric is patinated to look old and used. There are stains,

A still from

Women Cinemakers holes, tears, wrinkles and even moss growing in the dress, the dirt and dust occupy a big role. Costume is another skin. Same detrition and time passing is to be found in the props and set, which are broken, rusted and askew. We see time passing also in the growing hairs and long nails. I did not want well-known faces in my film. When I watch a blockbuster movie I often find my attention distracted by the glamour of the movie stars. Actors upstaging the films they appear in? Anyway there is too much space for humans. This is why so many of my films have something other than a human in the main role. These have included - in addition to the birch log and the car in other trilogy parts â&#x20AC;&#x201C; swans, ducks, a river, bottles, explosions, a baby lynx, french fries, garbage cans as well as some less well-known celebrities instead of stars. Do we need to give (human) rights to flora and fauna and even to objects to create more sustainable world? We like the way you created such a brilliant combination between the ordinary and the surreal and we daresay that could be considered an allegory of : how does daily life's experience fuel your creative process to address your choices regarding the stories you

tell in your films? In particular, do you think provides your artistic research with some ? Being woman can open the world of the ignored. That might give you understanding and empathy for the other exploited, but of course it is not automatic. Misogyny is so painfull, that sometimes it would be easier just close your eyes and claim that it doesn`t exist. Getting funding is not easy, since your story is not canon like. My daily life and herstory are of course colouring my works. Filmmaking is so challening that there has to be something profoundly touching and personal for me, something I wanna reseach with a risk. I want to see if the observation is working and how does it look like as a moving image. When working with fiction, I am surprised about the result. Although eschewing traditional dialogue structure, sound plays a crucial role in your film and the minimalistic soundtrack enriches the footage with a penetrating atmosphere and emotionally powerful sound tapestry. How do you see the relationship between sound and moving images playing within your work?

Women Cinemakers The set-up of the film resembles an ancient storytelling session, the sort where people sit around a campfire, passing on their cultural traditions to the next generation. The film is set in a fictitious prehistoric time, before humans developed speech. Here is a paradox again: women are living on a story-telling set up, but are unable or unwilling to communicate verbally. Lack of speech spread the talk outside the body. Sound effects are suppose to create an athmosphere of a silent film, which is commenting the incapability of sophisticated communication. Lack of verbal communication is transformed to the visual elements like cinematic special effects and prosthetics, costumes, propps and set. These expressions are representing expanded talk in the film. Soundscape is giving hints of the psyche of the characters. When is blowing, is sucking. Symbiotic dependendy squeezes the air out of the sound track as well as from their relationship. Sounds of the leaking body holes are on the surface of the sound track. These foleys include sounds like breathing, snorring, farting, yawning, coughing and hiccupping. Women are also laughing, their humour is something positive

Women Cinemakers

they are able share. I wanted those sounds to be more hilarious and exaggerated than gritty. I am visually oriented so there is always a sound designer in my works. I have quite many roles already in my films: writer, director, editor, producer, and in documentary based films I am filming too. But I hear voices and sound designer knows how to go there. It is very inspiring. All the sounds in the film are done and dubbed in the post production. This was economical must, since I did not have the money to hire a sound recordist on set. Happily this turned to be fantastic. When camera was rolling, I was able to continue directing. When editing there are only the images in the timeline. The 100% sound is not confusing, disturbing or directing you. Your experimental comedies are open to a multitude of interpretations and we have highly appreciated the way mixes the ordinary to the surreal: are you particularly interested in structuring your work in order to urge the viewers to elaborate ? How much importance do metaphors play in your artistic research and how open would you like your works to be understood?

Women Cinemakers

Personally I´ve had to fight for my independence. That has been affected the idea of dramaturgy, narration and story. Story is powerfull and narration can be part of manipulation and I do not wanna claim or underline directly. You can’t, after all, control how a work will be received.

The women is seen as Stone Age lesbians whose activities were odd, comical, touching, and Finnish, (the and who have been censored out of Finnish national epic). broadcast

I write my scripts as open narratives. I am using the euphemisms, metaphors and symbols as devices to alienate the original observation. is many-layered and open to multiple interpretations. The narrative is open-ended and can be understood in various ways. The dramaturgy is not so open-ended as to leave the viewer unable to connect with the piece, and yet not so tight either that there might not be room for individual interpretations. has been interpreted in a variety of ways by the curators and critics from India, Finland and Estonia. ”In A Musty, Misty Thicket is a mythopoetic featurette subverting the manly genres like war movies and sci-fi to more to ends and sensibilities more matriarchal.” The other saw ” , as the other ”

as a part of . Film was prohibited to minors under the had age of 7. However been the absolute favourite of children too. In Toronto´s Midnight horror screening the film was seen as uncanny post-apocalyptic twist on master-slave dynamics. A film festival catalogue sums it up:

I have met many people whilst touring with my work, and their interpretations have varied from one extreme to another. People do not have to share my view of my film. Many different viewpoints would never have occurred to me without these inspiring articles and conversations.

Women Cinemakers

Over the years your award-winning works have been international shown in several exhibitions and you also won two main prizes: Festival du Nouveau CinĂŠma, Montreal, in 2009 and Toronto Urban Film Festival 2014 (judge Guy Maddin): how much importance has for you that you receive in the festival circuit? And how do you feel previewing a film before an audience? Festivals are significant for my practice. Participating the festival means sharing, gathering, learning, networking, distributing, facing the audience, filming more and hopefully getting more invitations. Businesswise the A class festivals are great: there are producers, film commissioners and distributors. But mentalwise smaller, non-competitive ground can be fruitful too. The bigger the festival, the more there is usually competition, and that might decrease the solidarity between artists. Competing in arts is confusing, but the value is there: the winning film gets attention. Great experiencies have been also the venues outside ordinary concepts like interesting, strange and extraordinary settings such as drive-in - and demolished theatres, kindergartens, punk clubs, rooftops and stadiums. was even installed in a wood stove at the gas station.

Women Cinemakers

For me it is important taking the time and space to communicate with the viewers. I feel it more right than responsibility. Sharing your time and thoughts is good way showing the respect for the audience too. Quite often artists talks or Q&As are followed by the spontaneous aplauds, when I am speaking about the artistic approach in visual art and cinema. My humour is said to be dark and quirky. Some festivals pay attention for the Q&A. keeps the Q&A just after the film, not after the screening. It makes a big difference for the short film experience. There is no reason to be nervous before screenigs, people in the cinema are there to watch your film. I love hearing the feedback, but I am not dependent on it. Most have been positive, but I guess those who simply feel frustrated with the work are not so likely to come for a chat. We have appreciated both the originality and of your the approach, so before leaving this conversation we want to catch this occasion to ask you to express your view on the future of women in cinema. For more than half a century women have been from getting behind the camera, however in the last decades there

are signs that something is changing. Do you think it is harder for women artists to have their projects green lit today? What's your view on ? Film world is for sure harder for women. The future of women making films will get better, but not easily, since resistance is high. There is a lot of misogyny, underestimating belongs to that too. Fortunately #metoo is here. They say Finland there is more equality between sexes, but that is also a trap: Is there really something we should do more? Yes there is. is doing great job participating in the public debate. Like WIFT was taking the initiavite of the research (2017, ). It shows that women are half of the students at the film school, but then something happens after the school with public funding. Films directed by women got one fourth of the public financial resources. Films and TV series directed by women received 18 % of the total amount of the funding from public television YLE. But I also raise my hat to YLE, they have a slot called New Kino, which is

Women Cinemakers

broadcasting experimental and short films in the name of public service. In numbers we trust. Numbers are a girlÂ´s best friend. #metoo is also behind the analysis report: Harassment and other inappropriate treatment in the film and theatre industry (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2018) Changing the structures with political desicions, like putting the quatas 50%-50% production support, are very important. I am really supporting the quotas for the public film funds. In Sweden only the pressure of quotas changed the injustice. This is not touching only directors and actors. I am thinking of serving the audiencies who needs varied characters to idenitify with. I would like to think positive about the future, but I am worried how I am able to produce my films. Age discrimination is hitting women more and misogyny is a living thing. When ageing men are getting grey with dignity, women are becoming more invisible. Thinking positively, there is a lot of untold herstory, so there is many films to make. There is a big lack and need of the womenÂ´s stories, total gap in the market. World is in the need of films and art about women made by

women. Not to mention the films by minorities. We also nees to educate viewers to look other than macho, patriarchal and capitalistic films. Also women are used to watch these films. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Maarit. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? This has been an inspiring journey. Thank you so much for your dedicated questions. Quite often people are asking when I am going to make my feature lenght film. Minute by minute is my answer. I will create one hundred Minispectacles in all to have a 100 minutes feature lenght film in my hand. I have been shooting Minispectacles since 2005 on my travels with my works. The synopsis goes like this: Minispectacles is a series of one-minute films, cinematic haikus. Minute by minute all the way to Part 100 and to feature film. Woman with pocket camera. If something is stimulating or disturbing, touching or surprising, IÂ´ll shoot it. This is my way

Women Cinemakers

trying to escape the movie industry, it is the illusion of only me, camera and pure observation. Sounds like a light field work. Actually it is other way around, I have to make all decisions right is there a or not? away Responsibilities and decisions of a scriptwriter, cinematographer, director and producer has to be done right away. At the moment I am almost in half way. In (1-44/100, 2010-2018, BosniaHerzegovina, Canada, Egypt, Finland, France, Hungary, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America) we see among other things children, the childish, the childless, twins, moms, the French and french fries. There is more work in the pipeline, waiting to be finished. on process are taking poetic and absurd look to democracy ( 45-48/100, 2019, Hungary, Switzerland, Finland) is a great experimenting platform for me. For example (31-34/100, 2017) is a multisensory film work. The film has accessibility with applied audio description for visually impaired persons and experimental sound description for hearing impaired persons. There is also Rally English and

onomatopoetics, which appear cartoon like lipreadings. The same film applies to people who see and hear, and for those who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see or hear to enjoy the same experience. There is a plan to explore the haptic expression and touch language too. follows North African refugees first time wrinkling Karelian Pies, the Finnish national food. I find this one-minute form inspiring to research the beauty and oddity of the world. (Uncommercial) short form is usually seen as gateaway to (commercial) feature. But for me the feature is a motivation to make more shorts. However the limitations of are also pushing me to make a longer film. At the moment there are quite many unclear femaleassigned characters and abjects hovering in my mind and whispering for my ears to start a journey with them to make a film. Photo sketching is about to begin. An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com

Women Cinemakers meets

Lunga Yeni Lives and works in London, United Kingdom

Dream Catchers - Marvel has always wanted to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and despite only having 7% vision, a condition called Optic Atrophy. Aged 53, Marvel fulfilled her dream and also raised an amazing £4,700 for the RNIB. website: www.break-thruproductions.co.uk twitter: @breakthruprods Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/breakthruproductions Email: office@breakthruproductions.org.uk

An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com Hello Lunga and welcome to Women Cinemakers: we would like to introduce you to our readers with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid training formal training and after having earned your Bachelor of Arts in Directing and Theatrical Production from Rose Bruford College, you nurtured your education in Film Studies and Creative Writing at the prestigious Kingston University, in London: how did these experience influence your evolution as a filmmaker? Moreover, how does your cultural

substratum due to your theatrical career as an actress direct the trajectory of your artistic research? The actors’ discipline in film and theatre though on the surface may appear the same and in most instances are, because the detail in both can make or break a feeling, a notion and ultimately a scene: The actor has to capture the audiences’ imagination, in theatre the relationship with the audience is felt immediately, the audiences heartbeat helps to propel the actors performance, the symbiosis is palpable. While the actor’s preparation in realising a character’s emotional journey in both disciplines can be the same, a film actor’s relationship to the camera has to be magical too. The actor, I believe, must subconsciously hear and feel the camera’s

Director, writer and filmmaker Lunga Yeni

heartbeat. It is fascinating to watch an actor or subject of a documentary developing a relationship with the camera. It is a connection that is necessary for an audience to believe in, because most audiences are seeking to find truth, connectivity and resolution. We must convince ourselves that the subject/actor has nowhere to hide and that the camera very rarely lies; however, sophisticated audiences have come to realise that editing can be a false mistress. When Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m working with actors in film, I am aware that all the technical aspects like sound, lighting and the mis-en-scene, consume most of my time as the director - the actors at this time simply become the icing on the cake so to speak. In theatre, these aspects come much later in the theatrical process, in some instances actors donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see the space that they will be performing on until the night of the show. This can only work if the actors are prepared, experienced and know and understand my theatrical vision for the piece. For smaller productions there may only be a single set that is transformed from scene to scene, place to place or even time and space. These transitions are often made only with sound and lighting. In the play pictured above my actors successfully transported themselves and our audience to 1960s Jamaica; for an hour as we sat in the auditorium, we felt the humidity of the sun setting on the veranda of the rum distillery ownersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; family home. It is from these lessons in theatre of creating an atmosphere for a scene that allows me the freedom to explore and experiment in my film projects. What is exciting for me is that film allows my actors the visual freedom of living and breathing in an authentic space. For this special edition of we have selected , a captivating documentary film that our readers have already started to get to know in

interview

Women Cinemakers

Shame and Scandal by Alex Wheatle MBE directed by Lunga Yeni. The Albany Deptford 2016

Women Cinemakers

Marvel Opara training in Richmond Park

interview

Women Cinemakers the introductory pages of this article and that ca be viewed at . What has at once captured our attention of your insightful exploration of the figure of Marvel Opara is the way your sapient narrative provides the viewers with such an intense visual experience. While walking our readers through the genesis of could you tell us what did attract you to this particular story? When I started to film dream catchers Marvel had been training for over six months, not only to fulfil her personal dream, but she also raised an amazing £4,700 in support of the RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People). Marvel’s trek for 7 days across the Rongai Route took her to the summit of Africa's highest mountain. I want to dedicate my time as a filmmaker to telling stories about women that have touched my life in some way. I’m interested in creating a space where African/Black women are not ‘othered’. I first met Marvel at the Royal Court Young People’s Theatre when we were both aspiring young actors. Marvel is a warm, fun-loving woman, who lives life with 100% delight. She is also a mum of two successful sons. We rarely see African/black women portrayed in this light. I wanted the audience to meander into Marvel’s story at this juncture and allow us the time to see how she copes with the challenges life has thrown at her and how she has overcome them. But most of all my film is a celebration of a life well lived, of a woman determined to catch and fulfil her dream. It has always been Marvel’s dream to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. And as her name suggests she is a true marvel. At the age of four Marvel lost 93% of her sight or as Marvel chooses to say, she has 7% vision. She has a condition called Optic Atrophy. Marvel points out: “The reality of losing your sight is that you don't just lose your sight; you could lose your

Marvel at her local pub

independence, your income, your ability to get out and about, and the chance to do what you want to do.â&#x20AC;? Featuring such a stimulating effective veritĂŠ style enriched with delicate and emotional references to Marvel's inner sphere, DREAM CATCHERS is sapiently directed and balance captivating storytelling and refined aesthetics: what were your aesthetic decisions when shooting? In particular, how did you structure the editing process in order to achieve such brilliant results on the narrative aspect? I started the process with a good, clean audio recording. I wanted the interview to flow well because Marvel is such a

fascinating character. The visuals work well because they are Marvelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s everyday surroundings and Kilimanjaro is her dream destination. I chose not to sync dialogue where we see Marvel speaking on screen to make the audience really work hard to listen to her words. The images where she seems to be speaking but we can't hear what she says jar a little to signify her struggle as a visually impaired woman. I hope the slow-motion creates a more dreamlike sensation. I wanted the slow-motion images of her reflecting on her life and her achievement. I hope it is well-paced and hits the correct beats. I also wanted to experiment with the sound by not mixing in diegetic/location sound in the background. The absence of

sound combined with the slow motion has an odd effect on

spectatorship will take away from your film? Did you aim

slowing down the story. It succeeds in making Marvel feel

to convey a particular message for your audience?

quite remote and detached because she, unlike most of us, is pursuing her lifelong dream. This is juxtaposed with her voice

It would be wonderful if my audience received the message

over, which is where we really get a sense of her - her energy,

of black female empowerment. This film for me is a glimpse

wit, outlook - which is anything but slow and ponderous; she

at an ordinary woman doing an extraordinary thing. In her

is a woman of action!

small world Marvel is bringing about paradigm shifts in the manner blindness is still perceived. My film is also attempting

DREAM CATCHERS offers an extraordinary revealing look

to capture what it feels like to fulfil one of your dreams that

at the condition of a 53 aged woman affected by Optic

is why the structure is both poetic and reflexive. I offer no

Atrophy syndrome, yet provided with such incredible

commentary; it is just Marvelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s voice, her memories, her

enthusiastic approach to life: what do you hope your

laughter, her desires, her hard work.

Marvel on her tandem

Marvel at the summit

Women Cinemakers We like the way you created entire scenarios out of psychologically charged moments and we have particularly appreciated the way your narration pulls the spectators into a sustained and emotionally resonant dialectic with the stories that you shed light: could be we daresay that considered an allegory of human condition. How does daily life's experience fuel your creative process to address your choices regarding the stories you tell in your films? I want the opportunity to give black women an alternative ideology and language for our experiences. I am doing this by creating a platform that inspires connectivity in the spaces that black women inhabit. My aim is to redefine our stories and voices by placing black women at the centre of the narrative on stage and film. When one is consumed by life, the moments to find the time or space to analyse your place in the world are rare. More often than not you are too busy surviving. When I conceived the idea for Dream Catchers I wanted to capture that rare time and space. I envisaged a series of six short films, that opened a gateway into the lives of six very different black women with dreams and aspiration that stretched beyond the limitation of the ‘white colonial gaze’. When Marvel told me that she was going to climb Mount Kilimanjaro I was awestruck, I started to research the black women who had proceeded her. It turned out that Evelina Tshabalala is the first African woman to climb Kilimanjaro. I also discovered a short film by Afrikaan filmmaker Adrian Steirn; in which Evelina’s triumph is clocked by the white gaze, her voice becomes secondary. We literally watch Steirn manipulating his still images of her into a framework that supports the poor

downtrodden black woman narrative. Evelina is supported by a cast of “well-meaning” white people, who think they understand her struggle and have been brought up to believe that they are entitled to tell her story. Not only are they entitled to dip in and out of black people’s lives, they also have the right to dictate how our images are defined and read. This experience of the portrayal of black women in film is what we at Break-Thru Productions are seeking to change. I wanted Marvel’s voice to be the only voice heard. As a director, I am thrilled that you felt the narration pulled you, as the spectator, into a sustained and emotionally charged state of engagement. As an artist particularly interested in transformative narratives about black sisterhood and womanhood, what could be in your opinion the role of artists in our unstable, ever changing contemporary age? In particular, does your artistic research respond to a particular cultural moment? I believe that black women have found and are finding their voices. YouTube has opened the door to wonderfully opinionated black women thinkers like Cynthia G, Rashida Strober, For Harriet and Christelyn Karazin, who explore and debate issues of misogynoir, feminism, intersectionality, colourism and interracial dating. There are also fascinating tutorials on make- up and beauty, cookery, DIY etc. The content is varied and bears witness to the fact that black women are not a monolith, while mainstream media continues to force feed us negative, essentialist images of black women. YouTube is still, however, governed and owned by a white media machine. This is evidenced by the deluge of videos bashing black women/girls, the significant increase runs

Women Cinemakers parallel with the increased popularity of the Kardashian and Real Housewives reality franchises where black women are either marginalised and placed very much in the shadow of their white counterparts or depicted as angry and violent. If we examine contemporary black women through the Kardashian lens, it could be argued that they have been constructed to devalue and erase black women with the help of their black partners. I can illustrate my point by briefly exploring the Kardashian's body image, by locating the case study of Sarah Bartman to demonstrate the mechanisms of white patriarchal dominance. In 1810 Bartman was trafficked to England from South Africa to exhibit her body in freakshows. Europeans were “fascinated” by her broad hips and protruding buttocks, a physical characteristic which became the signifier both of what was primitive and of active sexuality. Bartman died aged 25, her body was dissected and her brain and genitalia were persevered and put on display in Paris until 1976. The same year in New York JeanPaul Goude’s photograph titled Carolina Beaumont after his muse, again saw the black body on display for a non-black audience. Michel Foucault’s analysis of the connections made of how power as domination reproduces itself in different locations employing similar strategies and mechanisms of control to create illusions of progression, while simultaneously reproducing constructs that contain and maintain the status quo tells us that we are constantly being controlled and manipulated. Kim Kardashian is celebrated and financially rewarded for breaking the internet with her fake buttocks, while Bartman and Beaumont continue to remain invisible. My work, not only seeks to call out European appropriation it is my main aim to motivate black women into scrutinising

what passes as portrayals of their lives and to begin to question what impact this global phenomenon has had, and will have, on informing black girls’ about their beauty, sexuality and social status? White women are consistently painted as bystanders by writers, film makers and historians. There is an overriding perception and narrative of white women’s powerlessness and fragility. This renders white women as witnesses and never as perpetrators and benefactors of racism. There is an impulse to protect white women and an even stronger impulse to dehumanise black women. In this cultural moment my research explores the irresponsible rhetoric on public platforms that expound dangerous ideas about black women/girls without consequence. This ‘symbolic annihilation’ a term that describes how as a spectator you are – a) not seeing yourself or b) Seeing yourself only victimized, denigrated and what that does to you. My work tries to unpack this systematic annihilation in order for it to be understood by those women and girls it affects daily. For me this attack needs to be named, shamed and remedied. aims to empower black women and girls with knowledge of the historical misogyny, hypocrisy and systemic discrimination that has led to the political, socio-economic and cultural landscape in which we find ourselves: would you introduce your readers to your company and to the collaborative nature of your approach to filmmaking? Moreover, do you think that your being a woman provides your artistic research with some special value?

Women Cinemakers

A still from

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Women Cinemakers BTP is asking black women and girls to always question and view images of themselves in the media critically. We are also asking black women to demand to be heard. Since BTP’s launch our mission has evolved into a women centred organisation. Our programming welcomes black women from a wide variety of ages, economic and educational backgrounds. In terms of our theatre work, choosing to stage ‘Broken’ as a site specific piece we are meeting everyone as they are, where they are and bringing everyone a little closer. We offer free post show/screening discussions that are moderated; attracting 25% of our patrons into a deeper conversation about our work. I do believe that my perspective as an African/British woman does provide my artistic research with a special and unique value. My work is greatly influenced by critical thinkers like bell hooks (whose book ‘Aint I a Women’ gave a voice to my political and socio-economic experience as a black woman), and Brittney Cooper’s book ‘Eloquent Rage’ which contextualizes the millennial black women’s experience. Both clearly defined misogynoir - a termed coined by black feminist scholar Moya Bailey to identify the deep anti blackness and the racialized sexism that black women face. My work asks:• How do black women cope with misogynoir? • What does that do to you? and • How do you make the decision that you will no longer try to make amends for being a black woman? I also admire the work of African American director Julie Dash’s 1991 film ‘Daughters of the Dust’, whose influence can be seen in the imagery used for Beyoncé’s Lemonade album. I want to evoke and present a space and place where we as a collective will not be murdered, persecuted, over-policed and constantly retraumatized with the legacy of slavery and colonialism and held hostage by white supremacy. My work at BTP is about

Marvel on a rooftop

Women Cinemakers understanding past conditioning and rejoicing in letting it go. Your films have been screened in several occasions: ‘ ’ screened at the Bang film festival and ‘ ’ screened at the BFI Southbank: how much importance has for you the feedback that you receive in the festival circuit? And how do you feel previewing a film before an audience? The feedback I receive as a filmmaker is of great importance, although it is both a gift and a curse. When you enter into a project the initial seed is yours: you nurture it, feed and water it before you allow yourself to reveal it to a close friend, a partner, or a colleague. You become vulnerable and exposed in that moment while desperately trying to maintain a thick skin. If your idea is met favourably at this point your confidence grows, which in turn allows your project to grow. I then become consumed by the minutiae of getting the idea from storyboard to film. Than the 4 w's come into play: • Who will my production team be? • What is cast going to be like? • Where will I get financing? • Why am I doing this again? When the 4 w's have been answered and you have the finished film, I’m left feeling vulnerable once again and I want to shout Erykah Badu’s famous words “I’m an artist and I’m sensitive about my shit!” Once the sensation of artistic loneliness dissipates this is a scary but necessary place to be. Film is to be consumed and appreciated by people. Good film can educate, illuminate and motivate. I want my artistry to touch as many people as possible. An audience response

Women Cinemakers

interview

Women Cinemakers or a critic's opinion provides me with greater incite to the way future projects can evolve and develop. We have appreciated both the originality and the sociopolitical engagement of your approach, so before leaving this conversation we want to catch this occasion to ask you to express your view on the future of women in cinema. For more than half a century women have been discouraged from getting behind the camera, however in the last decades there are signs that something is changing. Do you think it is harder for women artists to have their projects green lit today? What's your view on the future of women in cinema? It will always be harder for women with an original voice to get our work green lit in an industry that is owned and run by the same people who, for years, have actively discouraged our participation. I have no interest in joining or belonging to a club that has systematically degraded, excluded and erased me. Most of the successful women in the industry are very heavily invested in white patriarchal dominance, because it serves them well. As Foucault’s observed “….the mechanisms of control create illusions of progression.” That is where black players in the film or television industry find themselves if they want to be included in white establishment. 'Diversity' has been a buzz word for decades now and continues to be but it is simply an ‘illusion of progression’. We are told to believe that the existence of black women like Orpah Winfrey, Shonda Rhymes or Deborah Lee (CEO of the BET channel) are offering us a progressive lens in which to view ourselves, but when we take a closer more critical look the images and portrayals of black women in their productions they are startlingly similar to those of old Hollywood. I have no interest in compromising my creativity to be allowed into a

community that deplores my very existence. I give myself the green light. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Lunga. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I will be filming five more stories of ordinary women doing extraordinary things to complete our Dream Catchers series. This series is part of our new YouTube channel that will be launched in 2019, we will also be producing a new web series ‘Broken’ adapted from my debut play which charts the lives of five disillusioned women as they begin to take control of their own destinies. We are also producing an exciting news/review show called ‘The Rumour Mill’ hosted by Luyanda. I have also devised a new training programme called ‘Limitless’ for black female creatives; participants will receive expert advice from established industry professionals, i.e. cinematographers, producers, directors and writers. The course will help participants understand how to market and promote their work. The ‘Limitless’ programme has been adapted to be delivered as part of a school’s enrichment programme. BreakThru Productions aims to bring about more interaction amongst female filmmakers of African descent globally.

An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com

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Women Cinemakers

Women Cinemakers meets

Erin Brown Lives and works in Glasgow, UK

The values expressed in Pick Up cover a broad spectrum spread across humanity, kindness, tradition and security. I had become familiar with the work of the volunteer drivers at Lanarkshire Cancer Care Trust a few years ago when a family member decided to volunteer and I sat in on one of the journeys. What struck me immediately was the normality of the conversation between the patient and the driver. Despite the intensely physical and emotionally draining experience of cancer treatment these people were somehow able to get into a vehicle and have a menial, and often humorous, conversation with a stranger. It was thus imperative that I document this endearing sense of humility within my film. My focus, however, naturally began to shift away from the patient and the illness itself to the drivers and the time they selflessly dedicate to these vulnerable people. I was primarily interested in how, what the drivers themselves think of as, only a duty or a service could actually provide another person with a great sense of security and respite amidst their time of turmoil. Each day the passenger in the back seat changes and new stories are told, some make full recoveries and others, sadly, do not but regardless, the consistently cheerful and upbeat demeanour of the driver stays the same and this, to me, is truly admirable. An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com

Hello Erin and welcome to to start this interview we would ask you a

couple of question about your background. Are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution as a filmmaker? Could you tell us how did you get into filmmaking? I am relatively new into the filmmaking world.

In 2015 I was accepted into The Glasgow School of Art to study Communication Design where I had hoped to, eventually, specialise in illustration. At this point had shown no previous interest in photography or filmmaking, however, after completing a short brief in which we were required to shoot, process and print a series of images via an analogue process my interests completely shifted. I ended up specialising in photography and, through this, I was able to explore filmmaking. For this special edition of we have selected , a captivating documentary film that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article and that can be viewed at https://youtu.be/bi0VdGCx5jA. What has at once captured our attention of your insightful inquiry into the work of the volunteer drivers at Lanarkshire Cancer Care Trust is the way your essential narrative provides the viewers with such an intense visual experience. While walking our , would readers through the genesis of you tell us how did you come up to explore this story? I had been familiar with the work of the volunteer drivers at Lanarkshire Cancer Care Trust prior to beginning the project as my grandfather has been

interview

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A still from Pick Up

Women Cinemakers

A still from Pick Up

interview

Women Cinemakers

volunteering with them for several years. On one occasion a couple of years earlier, he had been giving me a lift home but on the way, he had to pick up and drop off a patient so during the journey I sat in the front seat and conversed with them both. This experience must have stuck with me as, years later, when I was undertaking a brief, which required me to explore and represent a hidden aspect of the city, I knew that I wanted to show the work of these volunteers. is penetrating journey to shared daily existence and we have particularly appreciated the way you created entire scenarios out of psychologically charged moments: we have appreciated the way your work speaks to a wide audience: so we want to catch this occasion to ask you a question about the nature of the relationship with your audience. Do you consider the issue of audience reception? And what do you hope to trigger in the spectatorship? Initially, audience reception is not a high priority to me; what drives me in the first stages of my creative practice is providing a platform for others to share their narrative. Secondary to this, the prospective audience enters into the forefront. I was aware that Pick Up featured a

A still from Pick Up

regional dialect, specific to the West of Scotland and I carefully considered how this could affect the audience. I concluded, however, that the speech was central to the narrative and therefore indispensable. I hope that these two aspects combined convey to the viewer a sense of humility and genuineness.

". Not to mention that almost everything, could be considered political, do you think that your work could be considered political in a certain sense? Moreover, what could be in your opinion the role of a filmmaker in our contemporary age?

Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, " My practice is predominantly in non-fiction

A still from Pick Up

filmmaking and so speaking from the documentary point of view, I believe that the role of the filmmaker in our contemporary age is one of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;crusading truth-tellerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in this post-truth world. Now, more than ever, it is possible to manipulate visual imagery as a way of controlling the narrative and I believe it is the job of the documentarian to navigate these waters; to strive for truth and credibility in all that they create.

What was the most challenging thing about making this film? What did you learn from this experience? The most challenging thing about making Pick Up was the technical aspects of filming in a moving vehicle. This set up presented a lot of complications with regards to limited space and, also, with a lot of unwanted background audio. One thing I took away from this learning curve was

A still from Pick Up

to invest in a separate sound engineer to record and edit the audio. The confinements of the small car also allowed for limited compositions and camera angles so I had to learn, very quickly, to be creative in that respect. We daresay that your documentary could be considered an effective allegory of human experience: how does everyday life's experience fuel your creative process to address your choices regarding the themes you explore? It is the everyday experiences of other people which motivate me most in exploring a theme for a new project. Over the past five years, the ‘art school’ environment has caused me to think thoroughly about my own origins as a young person from the West of Scotland and I began to various behaviours — daily rituals, speech, disposition — which differ from the majority of my peers. I have since attempted to capture these aspects through my film and photography work. captures hidden emotional reactions with a delicate, thoughtful detachment: do you think that your being a woman provides your artistic research with some special value? I would say that, in general, it is my class background that inspires my work; I am driven to make work which reflects my upbringing and

interview

Women Cinemakers

A still from Pick Up

Women Cinemakers

A still from Pick Up

interview

Women Cinemakers represents my own community. That being said, for the project that I am currently working on surrounding the theme of ‘motherhood’, my gender is undoubtedly an influence. I am fascinated by pregnancy and motherhood. Reflecting upon it, this may be because of my close relationship with my ‘young mother’ who had me at twenty-one years old. Whilst I have a strong maternal instinct (but am not a mother), I am aware that other women feel differently about motherhood, and I am fascinated by the facets of it. Before leaving this conversation we want to catch this occasion to ask you to express your view on the future of women in cinema. For more than half a century women have been discouraged from getting behind the camera, however, in the last decades, there are signs that something is changing. What's your view on the future of women in cinema? It seems to be a common belief that the representation of women in cinema, both in cast and crew, has drastically increased in recent years. Contrary to this, between 1911 and 2017, fewer than 1% of films have crews that are more than 50% female, this is particularly the case if the production is controlled by males(BFI, 2017) However, if a film has a female writer and a female director then the

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gender balance begins to improve significantly (BFI, 2017). I, therefore, think what is needed is for more positions within the film industry to be allocated to women. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Erin. Finally, would you like to tell us, readers, something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I am currently in my final year of study at The Glasgow School of Art and I am working toward my degree show. I plan to embark upon a large documentary project on the Scottish post-industrial town of Shotts, North Lanarkshire and its residents; I am keen to convey the resilience of the community in the face of adversity. I am also hoping to expand upon a past project which focuses on the diversity of motherhood. For both of these projects, I plan to use a combination of moving image, still photography and audio along with a combination of digital and analogue processes. An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com

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Women Cinemakers

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Women Cinemakers meets

Carmen Rojas Gamarra Lives and works in Lima, Perú

After studying Audiovisual Communications at the University of Lima (2007), I went to Madrid to do a Masters in Documentary and Experimental Cinema at the TAI School (2015). I wanted to study something that would make me unlearn everything that I had been taught, full of classic and conventional postures; the master gave me the tools to de-construct the process of making a film. I directed the short film "Vacío/a" (2016) that was shown at FICValdivia, Olhar de Cinema, Filmadrid, Film Society of Lincoln Center; and the documentary "BRUJAS" (2017) which had screens on Transcinema Film Festival, BAFICI and MICGénero. I co-direct YURAQYANA, an Audiovisual Collective with my sister Natalia. We've always had an interest in film and music, we have filmed live concerts, music videos and, lately, we've been focusing on making films. I really enjoy the 'guerrilla' way of work, following the DIY, punk spirit, doing things spontaneously, I feel freer like that. In addition, I created, along with several friends, a feminist platform called Maria Landó, which seeks to give visibility to all women who are part of the Peruvian music scene. I've recently, as a filmmaker, questioned more things, I'm more concerned about my role as a woman and a human being, and what can be done with cinema to support the struggles that I identify with. Human rights, feminism and animal rights are issues that need to be addressed and I want to do it with my films.

An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com

BRUJAS / WITCHES is a captivating Musical documentary about the Riot Grrrl Movement and Feminisms in Madrid by Peruvian director Carmen

Rojas Gamarra: featuring captivating verité style and a keen eye to details, her film offers an emotionally charged visual experience, walking the viewers to discover the feminist punk scene in our globalised still patriarchal and male-oriented societies. We are particularly pleased to introduce our readers to Rojas Gamarra's captivating and multifaceted artistic production.

Women Cinemakers

Hello Carmen and welcome to : we would like to start this interview with a couple of questions about your background. You have a solid formal training and after your studies in Audiovisual Communications at the University of Lima, you nurtured your education with a Masters in Documentary and Experimental Cinema, that you received from the TAI School, in Madrid: how did these experiences influence your evolution as a director? Moreover, how does your cultural substratum due to your Peruvian roots direct the trajectory of your artistic research? Both experiences were key to my development as a filmmaker. The University of Lima gave me a much more classical, theoretical training and i learned a lot; the Tai School made me unlearn and see and do filmmaking in another way, it was what I was looking for when I went to Madrid, something that would take me away from all the conventional film classisms, which would allow me to experiment and make mistakes. I think the mix of both have influenced my own point of view and i think that it will change over the years. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know if the fact of being Peruvian, for now, has influenced a lot directly in my work. I think that

in doing so, everything has been very subtle. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know if someone who sees my work can notice that I am Peruvian or not. For now there is not much of that, but in the future i would like to delve more deeply into my roots, explore in a deeper way. For this special edition of we have selected ,a captivating musical documentary that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your insightful inquiry into the feminist punk scene in Madrid is the way your brilliant storytelling provides the viewers with with such an intense visual experience. While walking our readers through the genesis of , would you tell us how did you come up to explore this theme? I had to work on a documentary as a Master's final project and i was completely blocked, far from home, feeling nostalgic. Suddenly, on Facebook i crossed with an article by Vice that said: '10 Riot Grrrl bands from Madrid you have to know', I read the article and discovered incredible bands with powerful messages. That's when I realized that this had to be my documentary theme, the hardcore punk feminist scene in Madrid. Both music and

feminism are issues that I love and I think it was the right time to do something about it. Featuring vibrant and unsparing realism, is directed with spare eye and effective verité style that enhance the spontaneity of your approach to filmmaking: what were your aesthetic decisions when shooting? In particular, what was your choice about camera and lens? I co-direct the audiovisual collective YURAQYANA together with my sister Natalia, with whom i’ve been

recording live music for several years, concerts, live sessions. A great inspiration when it comes to filming music has been Vincent Moon, whom I could meet when he was passing through Lima. I really like that way of filming, as if i were a member of the band, dancing with the camera, moving with music. Other references to filming BRUJAS were the documentaries ”Don’t look back” and ”Monterrey Pop” by D.A. Pennebaker, i really like to see the musicians talking to each other, and to feel that I'm

there with them. I would like to have included more of this in BRUJAS. But my reasons were not purely aesthetic, but because it was what I had left. I filmed the documentary alone, I did camera, sound, production, everything. So sometimes, these sudden movements within the film is because I had no more hands. I had the camera in one hand with a rode mic pro, in the other hand I had a tascam, sometimes I left it somewhere strategic depending on the place

to capture the ambient sound. In other cases I had a paper in the other hand where I had the questions for the bands. For BRUJAS i used a t4i or 650D canon, with an 18-55mm lens, i wanted to avoid changing lenses, i used the most basic and simple equipment, also because it was the only thing I had. The quality is not 'the best', there is a lot of noise but I think that is exactly what I like the most, that it looks dirty, punk, i think it contributes a lot to the

theme itself and the punk philosophy of diy, since literally that's how it was done. How did you research about ? Was it important for you to make a personal film or did you aim at leaving floor to the protagonists of your documentary? I grew up listening to punk from the United States and many bands from Perú. I was going to concerts with my older siblings since i was 14, so I knew what the scene was like. 98% of the bands were only men, the public in its great majority also, the organizer, the soundman, the one who sees the lights, all of them. The pit was a space for men too, as a men or women you can accidentally get hit, but if you are a women you can also get some part of your body touched, it happened to me once, someone touched my tits and i never went in the pit again. I thought the scene was like that and that’s it, i didn’t questioned anything, i had it very normalized. Years later I watched the documentary 'The punk singer' by Sini Anderson and it introduced me to the riot grrrl movement, to bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to betsy and I couldn’t believe that women could also do this. It was through the riot grrrl movement that I knew about feminism. My approach to feminist theory was through my favorite music and I love that it happened that way.

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Women Cinemakers I think that BRUJAS is a very personal film, because it talks about two things that i feel very passionate about: music and feminisms. But the absolute protagonists are the bands because without them there would be no documentary. I also think that i feel present, since it is my point of view and i do small interventions throughout the movie. We have deeply appreciated the way your documentary explore the bands from Riot Grrrl Movement and especially the way it highlights their lack of representation on stage in patriarchal and our maleoriented socities: what do you hope your documentary will trigger in the viewers? In particular, what could be in your opinion the role of filmmakers in our unstable contemporary age?

I think that the cinema is an important political tool, it can generate changes because that is what happened to me. Since I saw 'The punk singer' I began to question what I supposedly knew as 'normal'. And that is exactly what I would like to generate with BRUJAS. I always wonder what would have happened to me if I had seen â&#x20AC;&#x153;The punk singerâ&#x20AC;? when I was 14, when I was just beginning to listen to punk. What would have happened if I had woken up earlier. I think that filmmakers, and artists in general, can be agents of change by putting issues under discussion and making us question ourselves. I also think that we are an unstable

Women Cinemakers society constantly and that, perhaps, through the cinema, we can fix ourselves a little.

man would have given the appropriate importance or if he had felt as identified as a woman.

We have been impressed with your stunning approach to documentary, as well as your sapient use of editing techniques, that allow you to captures hidden emotional reactions with sharp eye and at the same time with thoughtful detachment: what was the most challenging thing about making this film and what did you learn from this experience? Moreover, do you think that your being a woman provides your artistic research with some special value?

It's important to mention that you created, along with several friends, a feminist platform called Maria Landó, which seeks to give visibility to all women who are part of the Peruvian music scene. It's no doubt that collaborations as , an Audiovisual Collective that you have established with your sister Natalia are today ever growing forces in Contemporary Art and that the most exciting things happen when creative minds from different fields of practice meet and collaborate on a project: could you tell us something about the collaborative nature of your work? Can you explain how your work demonstrates communication between artists from different disciplines?

BRUJAS was edited by my sister Natalia, we worked a lot together and I think she was the right person to do it. At first I thought about editing it myself but sometimes it's good to get away from your own project and let someone else see it, have another set of eyes. The most difficult thing, and Natalia helped me with that, was that all the bands had very interesting speeches but I couldn’t include them all in the final cut. For me it would have been a three hour documentary but I don’t know if someone else had been willing to see it. I think that in this particular case, it was important to have a feminine look in the edition for the theme itself, for the speeches, I don’t know if a

I am part of María Landó, a feminist collective that seeks to give the visibility that all women who are part of the Peruvian music sector deserve. It seems that we are few but this is not the case, the problem is that we don’t know each other and that we all work from a distance, so our goal of becoming visible gets more difficult. This is why for Maria Landó it is very important to work in alliances and collaborate with other women and feminist

groups, because together we are stronger and work becomes easier. As one the pioneers of feminist art, Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, Victorine Meurent not fall prey to the emotional prettification of a beloved subject and seems to be a tribute to the issue of women's identity. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, "the artists' role differs depending on which sociopolitical system they are living in.' Not to remark that almost everything, ranging from Gentileschi's Susanna and the Elders to more recently Valie Export's work could be considered political, do you think that could be considered a political documentary film, in a certain sense? I think so. Feminism is a personal and highly political issue because it proposes a change in the status quo and that terrifies those who are in a position of power because it means that they will have to renounce certain 'privileges' to be in a more equitable position. And just as 'The punk singer' meant a change in me, it made me reflect on how normalized the female presence in music was and in the punk and hardcore scene, which historically has been dominated by men. As it is well said, the personal is political. That little female presence in music is something that also happens in other

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Women Cinemakers

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Women Cinemakers spaces, in the high positions of power that make the decisions of a country. It is important that there are women, that there is a presence and that, above all, there is representation, so that from girls we see women in positions of power and that we see it as something completely normal. Over the years your works have been showcased in several occasions: we have really appreciated the way your inquiry into gender issues deviates from usual stereotypes and before leaving this conversation we want to catch this occasion to ask you to express your view on the future of women in filmmaking. For more than half a century women have been discouraged from getting behind the camera, however in the last decades there are signs that something is changing: what's your view on the future of women in this interdisciplinary field? Do you think that it is still harder for women artists to have their projects green lit today? I believe that women have lived in the shadow of men for many years. More and more initiatives are being born like this to encourage and make visible the work of women in different fields, film, painting, literature and i think it thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so important. I feel that we are living a new feminist wave and i love that i get to see it with my own eyes. Instead of sitting back and complaining, i feel

that from different places and areas we are organizing ourselves and taking action. As for cinema, it was only a couple of years ago that i learned about Alice Guy-Blaché in the International Film Festival of Valdivia, where they paid her a nice tribute. Like her, there are many women who were in the shadow of male filmmakers. They were not given adequate attention in their time, they were not considered important enough and only now, little by little, we are discovering that they were always there and that their work was so good. In Perú the Film Festival Made by Women was born, which is valuable, because spaces are being created to spread what we do, new spaces for our representation and creation of new references. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Carmen. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? Right now I'm in Post Production of my first short film called "Bangs". I am also working on a film project that i will co-direct with my sister. I feel that making BRUJAS brought me closer to the documentary and it is a genre that i want to continue exploring. I would also like to continue touching gender issues since Perú is a very aggressive country with women and i feel that we have to talk more about it, put the issue

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Women Cinemakers

Women Cinemakers meets

Lin Li Lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland Swika is a dog that lives with a family of nomads in the Sahara Desert in Morocco. He spends most of the time during the day sleeping under a pile of branches. His owner Hamed, with the assistance of his relative and interpreter Youssef, talks about the changes which have affected Swika and their way of life. While the film centres around Swika and his house of branches, footage captured from the dog house offers oblique glimpses of the desert landscape and of the daily life of Hamed and his family. An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com Hello Lin and welcome to WomenCinemakers: we would start this interview with a couple of introductory questions. Coming from an academic and employment background in Social Sciences and disability service, you gradually shifted your vocation to Fine Art: what did address you to this important change in your career and how does the relationship between your cultural substratum due to your Hong Kongese roots and your

current life in Scotland direct the trajectory of your artistic research? I changed the direction of my career relatively late in life when I was entering the fifth decade of my life. I studied Psychology and Philosophy at university and then taught and worked as an academic researcher for many years. When I decided to spend more time and energy on art, specifically painting, I gave up my academic career and took up a job in a local government social work department in Scotland working for visually impaired people. It was not an easy decision at the time because my academic research post was interesting and my colleagues were stimulating and easy to work with.

However, the kind of intellectual and statistical analysis which my job required was not enough to touch something deeper in me, something which cannot be expressed in words or numbers. Perhaps my migrant status did play an important part in this change. As a migrant who had moved many times (to England and then Scotland, living in a number of different cities over three decades), I did not feel entirely rooted in one place. My artistic pursuit is perhaps a way of exploring where my centre lies, in relation to the shifting social environment I live in. I now feel very much at home in Scotland even though there is still an inner sense of being on the margin which, however, does not bother me. Given my experience, I am very interested in people who could be seen as outside mainstream society and some of my recent moving image work focuses on such people in Scotland. My Chinese cultural background has had considerable influence on my artistic output, particularly the graphic and symbolic nature of traditional Chinese characters, as well as Chinese songs, poems and tales which I learned while growing up in Hong Kong. After having settled down in Scotland, the Scottish cultural and physical environment probably has more direct impact on my creative practice. However, the different cultural influences I have been exposed to are merged within me and my artistic research in a Scottish context often conjures up association with some Chinese cultural elements, and sometimes they find their way into my work (e.g. in the film Fragments of Peace vimeo.com/84940685). You are an eclectic artist and your versatile practice embraces videos, painting, sculpture and performance to pursue multilayered visual results: before starting to elaborate about your artistic production, we would invite to

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Women Cinemakers

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Women Cinemakers our readers to visit http://www.linli-art.com in order to get a synoptic idea about your artistic production: would you tell us what does address you to such captivating multidisciplinary approach? How do you select a particular medium and discipline in order to explore a particular aspect of your artistic inquiry? I started my artistic career with a focus on painting, but I often felt unhappy with my work and tended to spend a lot of time on each painting and also discarded many completed pieces along the way. I have always been interested in sound and music as a creative medium and certain two-dimensional visual artworks seem to me musically suggestive, for example, abstract paintings such as Bridget Rileyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. So I started to integrate acoustic elements with my paintings, including the creation of small sculptural pieces which are a hybrid of painting and musical instruments. My interest in sound, especially in the human voice, plays an important part in my artistic trajectory. In 2011, I bought my first DSLR camera which has the facility for video recording. For the first time, I could express myself both visually and sonically in a single piece of work. Having received some positive response to my first short experimental video, I felt encouraged to continue to use moving image and sound in my creative practice. Although I have exhibited sculptural work and done performances, I have not had time to develop these areas to the extent I would have loved to. I have used these other mediums because they offered me the best way to express certain ideas. Some physical material (such as paper, paint, wood and thin wires) has special appeal to me and I still play and experiment with them from time to time, even though I am not at present making any work in these mediums which could be exhibited.

For this special edition of we have , a captivating film that selected our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article and that can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/253398241. What has at once captured our attention of your insightful inquiry into the epiphanic nature of the details of reality is the way your sapient narrative provides the viewers with such an intense visual experience. While walking our readers through the genesis of , would you tell how did you develop the script of your film? In particular, do you like spontaneity or do you prefer to

meticulously schedule every details of your shooting process? Swika and Its Home was an unexpected piece of work for me. Swika is a 15-year-old dog that belongs to a family of nomads in the Sahara Desert in Morocco. I did the filming during a residency in CafĂŠ Tissardmine, which is located miles away from the nomad family. I visited the family only a few times. On two occasions, I stayed overnight in their tent. When I first visited them, I had no intention of making a film about them, as I believe that such a brief encounter would not be able to lead to anything beyond a tourist gaze.

However, when I saw the dog, I was intrigued by its role in the family, and was attracted to it by its gentle nature. When I spoke to Swikaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s owner, Hamed, and found out why the family had a dog, what he said made me decide to make a short film around the dog. I normally do not pre-plan my filming process in great detail (although for my next project I have to do so for some specific reasons). My films fall roughly into two categories: short experimental pieces, and longer works with a documentary element involving interviews. The first group of films, and to a lesser extent the second group as well, are

like assemblages of fragments of my experience which have been captured with my camera and audio recorder. I have built up a library of moving and still images and sounds. I regularly capture on camera scenes which touch me and often my idea of how to use the clips only comes later. Many images just stay in my digital library and have not been used at all. This library is like my memory and the final filmic output is an edited version of something I remember and is meaningful to me. This approach serves me well in most cases. However, given the constraints in the context of the residency, such as

limitation of time and geographical distance, a more structured approach was necessary. So before my second visit to Hamed and his family, I had a rough idea of what and how to film, and of the questions I wanted to ask Hamed. Swika spent most of the time during the day sleeping in his house which was made up of an interesting pile of branches, a structure which looked like a piece of modernist sculpture. In a desert environment that seems so timeless, the only reminder of the passage of time is the movement of the sun and I decided before the visit that I would film from dawn till dusk (except when the sun and heat were too hot and unbearable in the middle of the day). As the sun moved, it lit up different parts of the doghouse and revealed various shapes, textures and objects attached to the branches, as well as the occasional birds which perched on the structure. The space underneath the branches was large enough to accommodate the dog and other small animals like one or two chickens. During my visits, Swika was away most of the time, having followed Hamed who had gone to work with his camels some distance from home. Given Swikaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s elusiveness, the limited time I had and the visual appeal of the doghouse to me, I decided to centre the filming around Swikaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house. During the residency, I experimented with a meditative walking practice which incorporated contingent camera work. Applying this practice to the making of Swika, I circumambulated the pile of branches numerous times with my camera close to my body pointing at the structure. Referencing the meaning of circumambulation in various religious traditions, my walking practice took on a ritualistic quality and, after many circles, it made me feel almost at one with the doghouse. Thinking about Swika while I walked, I was also trying to get closer to it psychologically. I usually walked around the structure a few times at different distances from it, stopped, and then positioned my camera somewhere near the branches to film the landscape and human activities from that viewpoint. This gave me an oblique glimpse of the daily life of Hamed and his family. This limited sample

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Women Cinemakers of their lives is of course highly selective and the deficiency in my understanding of them is perhaps similar to the dogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deficient (I suppose) view of the human world. In my last visit, I interviewed Hamed with the help of his cousin Youssef as interpreter. Extracts from the interview were subsequently juxtaposed with the visual images I had filmed. Although I adopted a much more organized approach to the making of Swika than I normally do, the images which I captured were largely fortuitous and it is this chance element which captivated me and allowed me spontaneity and freshness in the filming process. I also photographed the branches often without looking at the camera (as I held the camera to the side of my body.) The audience may wonder whether the human activities shown in the film were acted out for my sake. I certainly did not arrange for them to happen and I also had the impression that these were genuinely part of the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daily life. Indeed during my second visit, Hamed was away with the dog even though he knew I would be there filming. His wife, Fatina, did not want to be filmed during my first visit, but after that, she seemed happy to do so and was eager to look at the footage afterwards. My decision to be as unobtrusive as possible and to avoid filming them in their more intimate space probably made the family feel comfortable to carry on their daily life as normal. If I had stayed longer with the family and got to know them better, I might have made a different film, perhaps a more intimate portrayal of the life of the family. But apart from practical constraints, I need to balance filmic curiosity with respect for the family who may not welcome such intrusion. This is indeed the kind of ethical consideration I am constantly confronted with when I film other people. Elegantly composed, features stunning landscape cinematography and each shot is

carefully orchestrated to work within the overall structure: what were your aesthetic decisions when shooting? In particular, what was your choice about camera and lens? As I explained above, most of the scenes were taken near the doghouse, and I filmed the landscape from different positions so that I could take in different views. I tried to use a variety of shots for different purposes and also to reflect the multiple facets of my experience. Using wide shots such as the dawn scene at the beginning of the film, I wanted to convey the expanse and flatness of the landscape. The spatial openness and vastness, and in contrast the smallness of my existence, was central to how I experienced the landscape and the relationship of human beings with this physical world. The wide shots which show Hamed together with his family and/or camels sprang from this perception of human scale in comparison to the scale of the open space, and they also reflected my position of being an outsider to their life and culture, looking from a distance (psychological and otherwise) and wanting to know more but not fully understanding. While the wide shots give a sense of scale, the closer shots reveal texture and details, for example, of the earth as well as the wall made of mud and straw, all of which looks really beautiful in the desert light. The film is structured around Swika and the doghouse. The still photos of the doghouse which I took while walking slowly around it were shown intermittently throughout the film to serve the purpose of being transitional points and an indicator of the subjectivity of my viewpoint as the filmmaker. The camera I used for the filming is a Canon EOS 5D Mark III and a digital compact camera Sony Cybershot RX100. The lens I used for the Canon is a zoom lens EF 24- 105mm. Because of the way I normally work (collecting and then assembling), I usually carry the small camera with me when I am out and about. When I first

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Women Cinemakers visited Hamed and his family, I only had this small camera, but some of the clips I took with them turned out to be very useful because that was the only evening when Swika was around. has drawn heavily from the specifics of its environment and we have really appreciated the way the narrative drive of your film highlights the resonance between the story and the Sahara Desert in Morocco: how was your creative and shooting process affected by locations? Filmmakers always have to pay attention to the specifics of their filming locations. Filming outdoor means less control over such factors as the light, weather condition and so on. The desert poses special challenges. First there is the sun and the heat. Although I was in the Sahara Desert in October and November which are the cooler months of the year, the midday sun was still fierce particularly when the position from which I was filming did not have any shading features. The heat, however, is not always a negative. The hot air could result in fascinating phenomena like heat shimmer or mirages as in Werner Herzogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s film Fata Morgana. Living in Scotland which has a wetter and darker climate, I welcome the amount of light in the desert and how the direction and quality of the light changes from dawn to dusk. The light cast interesting shadows onto the walls and grounds and revealed attractive details and texture. I got up early one morning in order to film the dawn scene. It was a really magical experience to be immersed in the quiet and semidarkness of the open space and watch everything being slowly lit up by the rising sun. One problem of filming in the desert is how to protect sand from getting into my equipment. I brought along protective

covers but generally did not have to use them when there was no wind. However only when I was back in Scotland later did I realize that some of the sands had managed to get into my lens even though I had taken much care to protect my camera. The houses and tents of Hamedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family are also part and parcel of the desert environment, and they signify the almost symbiotic relationship between humans and the natural world, as activities of human inhabitants continually shape the evolution of a place and vice versa. Perhaps the visual recording of such specifics (and thereby asking critical questions) is the contribution filmmakers could make to the search for harmony between the Earth and its human inhabitants. shows the details of reality that hide beauty and simplicity: we have appreciated the way you show the ephemeral nature of human perception that raises a question on the role of the viewers' viewpoint, inviting us to going beyond the common way we perceive not only the outside world, but our inner dimension. Maybe that one of the roles of an artist could be to unveil such unexpected sides of reality, urging the viewers to elaborate personal interpretations? Mainstream commercial cinema tend to spoonfeed the audience with entertainment and drama, often driven at a fast pace with jump cuts which do not give viewers time to think, behold and linger around the image on screen. As implied by your question, the way we perceive the world is often not dissimilar to watching such (mainly Hollywood) films, as we live in a world so overloaded with information and we could easily

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Women Cinemakers switch from one image to another with a swipe or a click on our phones or computers. I like the word ‘behold’ because it suggests not just seeing but holding and keeping. The holding and keeping of an image means making it our own, by allowing our own personal interpretations to emerge from the image. I hope that my films could give the viewers the opportunity to behold images which draw my attention. The filming process itself is also a means for me to counter, within myself, what you have described as the “common way of perception”, to behold what enters into my consciousness through my senses. Framing and staying with a scene in a long take helps me discover things which I might not have noticed otherwise and it is also a way for me to find my connection with both the outside world and my own inner world. The resulting moving image work is a way to share my discovery and connect the audience with the worlds which I have, (evenly if momentarily) entered into. features effective editing and use of temps mort has reminded us of Anne-Marie Miéville's work: could you tell us your biggest influence and how did they affect your work? I am rather eclectic in my filming approach and also in the kinds of films I like to watch. There are many films I find inspiring such as Chantel Ackerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Mirror, Forough Farrokhzad’s The House is Black, Nicolas Philibert’s Nénette, Werner Herzog’s Land of Silence and Darkness, Angela Shanelec’s Orly, and many more. It is hard to say how these films which appeal to me have affected my work, because I do not consciously emulate or reference any specific film or filmmaker when I develop an idea. Also I work on a very different scale and level from these master auteurs, often on my own without a

crew. To me, my shorter experimental pieces are like Haiku whereas these filmic works I admire are long form poetry or novels. Nevertheless, there are qualities about the films that I find inspiring which have probably influenced the way I approach some of my own work. The slower tempo is one such quality and, as you have pointed out, that certainly is evident in Swika and Its Home. I am also very fond of documentary films particularly those with an observational element and in which the filmmaker makes little attempt to intervene or influence what is being filmed, such as Farida Pacha’s My name is Salt and Abbas Kiarostami’s Five. The slowness together with the more observational elements of some of these films could create a meditative, mesmerizing experience for the viewers. By using long takes in Swika, I am perhaps following in the footsteps of these filmmakers. The way I approach my moving image work varies from project to project although there may be a core sensibility which runs through most, if not all, of the films which I have made. Having seen countless number of artist films in which a diversity of experimental approaches are adopted has encouraged me to think more divergently. Lacking formal training in filmmaking and working on the margin, I would consider myself an amateur in Maya Deren’s definition – “one who does something for the love of the thing rather than for economic reasons or necessity”, and for this reason, I am less influenced by the conventions and rules in mainstream cinema and feel freer to follow my instinct in expressing my own vision using whatever techniques that seem appropriate to me. We daresay that your exploration of the desert landscape could be considered an effective allegory of

interview

Women Cinemakers

interview

Women Cinemakers human experience: in you leave the floor to your character, finding a simple still effective way to walk the viewers to develop an emotional bridge with the viewers: what are you hoping your film will trigger in the audience? I think a piece of artwork or a film is not a static, fixed entity. The art or the film resides not just in the materiality of the work i.e. the visuals and the sounds, but is very much in the process of viewing and in the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind as well. Viewers bring with them their personal histories, values and personality traits to create the film in their minds. So I do not have (nor do I wish to have) total control over the film or films which the viewers have received. In the making of Swika and Its Home, my primary concern was to share with the audience my experience of the desert environment and fragments of daily life of Hamedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family, as well as the little that I know about how their way of life had changed. What I saw and heard during the filming process had a strong emotional impact on me and triggered my reflection on various issues, some relating to questions of the essence of human existence and others to the environmental and socioeconomic situation in which Hamedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family live in. There is no commentary in the film which highlights these reflections of mine because I would rather that the audience respond to the film in their own way and it is quite possible that the feelings and thoughts which the film evokes in them may not correspond to mine. Despite the absence of any narration from me, my presence and subjectivity is acknowledged through the sound of my footsteps during the circumambulation of the branches. The walking signifies my emotional engagement with the dog and its environment, and with the family - getting closer as the film progresses and moving away again at the end; also the branches changing in clarity sometimes appearing almost abstract as I

struggled to find the dog. We have really appreciated the originality of your artistic research and before leaving this conversation we want to catch this occasion to ask you to express your view on the future of women in cinema. For more than half a century women have been discouraged from getting behind the camera, however in the last decades there are signs that something is changing. What's your view on the future of women in cinema? Women were discouraged from making films for more than half a century since the first motion picture appeared. This was hardly surprising given the subordinate role women played in the wider society. It’s not that there were no women filmmakers but their works were largely ignored and their names not widely known. For example, John Grierson (1898-1972) who is often hailed as the father of British documentary had two sisters Ruby Grierson (1904-1940), and Marion Grierson (1907-1998) who were also documentary filmmakers but their films (which pioneered an approach which gave direct voice to their subjects), albeit important, were marginalized. It is heartening though to see more attention being given to these early female filmmakers in recent years. Their increased prominence is partly fuelled by the changing role of women in cinema and is also helped by the Internet which allows easier access to information about these female directors and to the films they have made. Despite the fact that more and more women have directed films, the mainstream film industry is still male-dominated. A recent article by Mark Brown in the Guardian newspaper in the UK (published on 30 August 2018) reveals that in this year’s London Film Festival programme, 38% of the films are directed by women, a figure higher than in the previous year. The gender distribution at other major film festivals is far worse. “At Venice, only one of the 21 films in competition is directed by a woman…. At Cannes this year it was only slightly better, with three out of 20 filmmakers female. At the

interview

Women Cinemakers

interview

Women Cinemakers

Baftas this year, for the fifth year running, no woman was included in the best director category. At the Oscars, Greta Gerwig became only the fifth woman to be nominated for best director.” It is not clear what has contributed to such a gender disparity – whether there are fewer films made by women or just fewer distribution opportunities for female directors. Outwith the mainstream film industry, there are certainly a lot of female artists working with moving image. In Scotland, the Margaret Tait Award (in honour of yet another pioneering female filmmaker) for artists with experimental and innovative moving image work has been won by more female than male artists (six out of nine of the winners from 2010 are women with an additional two thirds of the shortlisted artists being women). Such success by female artists is unfortunately not necessarily echoed in other parts of the world. In this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam which has a focus on artists’ films, only 5 of the 13 award winning films are directed by women. Given the long history of gender disparity in filmmaking, it is wonderful that there are publications like the WomenCinemakers which help to promote the profile of female filmmakers. In terms of distribution opportunities, the Internet (such as Vimeo) has given independent filmmakers a platform to show their films online regardless of gender. There are also festivals which are dedicated to films made by women, such as the IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival. Attending the IAWRT festival in 2015, I had the humbling experience of watching films made by female artists who work under very difficult cultural and political conditions (e.g. in Iran and Afghanistan). Some of the directors were able to attend the festival and talked about the numerous obstacles they had encountered in making their films. Thinking about their determination to make films despite all the challenges and about

the various recent initiatives supporting female filmmakers, I feel hopeful for the future of women in cinema. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Lin. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I see my filmic practice continuing to progress in the two strands I mentioned earlier â&#x20AC;&#x201C; more actuality based work involving interviews with individuals in parallel with short experimental pieces. Since the making of Swika and Its Home, I have completed a documentary of the portraits of four European migrants, and two short experimental videos. For the actuality based strand, I have just completed the filming for a new project which is a monologue based on a real interview I did with someone who had accompanied a stranger to go to Switzerland to die. Her experience is recounted by an actor in order to protect her identity. This project is a new departure for me because it is the first time I work with a crew and a script. For the more experimental strand, I would like to explore more deeply some strategies which I have tried before. In a new series of work which is still at the beginning stage, I would like to develop a more undefined and enigmatic quality in the content using free association, thus giving space for the viewers to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;createâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; the narrative in their mind. The integration of still images into moving image work (like in Swika and Its Home) is another strategy which I would continue to employ. Earlier this year I made a film entirely out of still photographs and I would like to experiment with ways of developing such an approach. Thank you so much for taking an interest in my work and for giving me this opportunity to talk about my film Swika and Its Home and other topics. I give my best wishes to your magazine and to all the

interview

Women Cinemakers

Women Cinemakers meets

Fernanda Martins Lives and works in Belém, at the Amazon Delta

The documentary 'Marajó das Letras' flows indo the the master-painters of boats from the Marajó Island, called “letter openers”. Opening letters on boats is a trade associated with the traditional naval painting with brushes, a technique by which the names of the Amazonian boats are painted with colorful decorated letters. This diffuse knowledge, which can be found along the Amazonian rivers, is threatened. It is being challenged in Marajo Island by the increasing use of paint guns – in a style they call graffiti -, particularly remarkable in smaller boats, the so-called "rabetas". Such changing reality has imprinted on the Marajó landscape another atmosphere, one influenced by the global media, mainly by the Internet. The short film navigates through the diverse cultural manifestations that influence this artistic expression, from the types of boats to the techniques of painting letters; from the urban aesthetics of tecnobrega aparelhagem modern parties to the traditional carimbó music. These are some of the characteristics revealed in this work that brings not only a documentary vision of the Amazonian decorative letters, but also the poetry behind the traces of these artists that float in the waters of the giant Marajó archipelago. An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com

Captivating and refined in its balanced

and effective storytelling, Marajo das Letras is a stimulating documentary film by Brazilian filmmaker Fernanda Martins: inquiring into the masterpainters of boats from the Marajó

Island, she demonstrates the ability to capture the subtle depths of emotions. This captivating documentary offers an emotionally charged visual experience, inviting the viewers to unveil the ubiquitous beauty hidden into the details of our everyday life experience. We are particularly pleased to introduce our readers to Martins' captivating and multifaceted artistic production. Hello Fernanda and welcome to WomenCinemakers: to start this interview we would like to invite our readers to visit http://letrasqflutuam.com.br in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production. In the meanwhile, we would ask you a couple of question about your background. Are there any experiences that did particularly influence your evolution as a filmmaker? Could you tell us your biggest influence and how did they affect your work?

interview

Women Cinemakers

interview

Women Cinemakers As an art student at University of SĂŁo Paulo, years ago, I had the opportunity to get in contact with cinema history and theory. It was not my major, but for some reason I spent most of my days around the cinema students, following their courses. As for my professional career, it has been dedicated to Graphic Design for many years, so visual storytelling is a part of my daily activities. As a movie addict, I have always been interested in directors who mastered the building a strong visual experience, such as Akira Kurosawaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dreams. Despite being a movie lover, I started a career in the audiovisual industry unintentionally, and late, but I fell in love with the ability of touching people, how powerfull is the audiovisual as a communication e educational instrument. Letras que flutuam began with a passion for typography and popular culture, particularly this art form in boats, which I have encountered in these distant places, normally abandoned by the government policies,

ignored. I have great interest in the aesthetics of these places, which is original and truly Brazilian, but which does not surpass its territorial limits, and ends up invisible to the eyes of the great urban centers.

For this special edition of WomenCinemakers we have selected Marajo das Letras, a captivating documentary film that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your insightful exploration of the

master-painters of boats from the

tell us what did attract you to this

MarajĂł Island is the way your sapient

particular story?

narrative provides the viewers with such an intense visual experience,

I am a designer by profession, specially dedicated to Typography. In 2004, I

enhanced by elegant composition.

moved from SĂŁo Paulo, the huge brazilian

While walking our readers through the

metropolis in the south of the country, to

genesis of Marajo das Letras, could you

BelĂŠm, in the amazon region. Here, I

noticed, right away, the way the names where painted in riverine boats, with strong influence from the XIX centuryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s typographical tradition. That prompted a long-term research, for which I have been photographing and talking to professionals in the field. At first it generated a small documentary, in 2013, available on youtube, and not MarajĂł das Letras. When the researchers on this vernacular lettering reached MarajĂł, we were caught by surprise by the new techniques that were transforming the visual landscape, and that is what the film is about, the tradition versus the modernity, the old masters versus young painters. Elegantly shot, Marajo das Letras features stunning landscape cinematography and keen eye to the details: from a visual point, we have been fascinated with your clear and effective approach to narrative. What were your aesthetic decisions when shooting? In particular, what was your choice about camera and lens?

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Women Cinemakers

interview

Women Cinemakers

We wanted the movie to be a visual narrative of the popular visual culture of the MarajĂł island territory, which is usually blatantly ignored by formal culture producers. The goal was to transmit visually the sunny and humid environment we live in, and there was also special attention to color, trying to match the tecnobgrega music style, very popular to the visual manifestations in the region. The photography director is very talented; is the second time we work together in a incredible harmony. The film was shot with two Sony 28-70 and we used 3 Canon lenses 16-35/2.8, 24-70/2.8, 50/1.2, resulted that we had to fight with some color differences â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with mostly a 16-35mm and a 70-200mm. We have appreciated your fresh narrative style: how did you organize your shooting process? In particular, do you like spontaneity or do you prefer to

meticolously schedule every details of your shooting process? There were two stages, one of preproduction and filming itself. From the result of the first stage we identified who our characters were, the themes, as well as what wanted to film, sound design, type of framing and especially what questions we would like to ask each specific character. The filming itself was subject to the logistics of the region, which are particularly complicated. On set, we always strive to create a connection with the interviewee, to chat and become friends, and gain their trust. The interviews were long, until the characters felt at ease, and ended only when we got our questions answered. In your documentary you leave the floor to the people that you introduce to your readers, to develop a bridge with

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Women Cinemakers

A still from

interview

Women Cinemakers spectators' inner sphere, and we have deeply appreciated the way your film walks the viewers to discover the diverse cultural manifestations that influence MarajĂł artistic expressionWhat are you hoping Marajo das Letras will trigger in the audience? I want the audience to share the same enchantment we have with the people, to be an exchange of truths, transparent, as our relationship with the professionals who paint the boats. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m full of respect and admiration for them. Our intention is that the audience also relates to these people and their way of life, understand and value their culture. More than empathy, I seek to share a caring approach. On the other hand, I also try to show to the locals themselves how important is the cultural aspects in places lije that. considered poor and abandoned by the public policies, as a way of valuing and showing appreciation

Women Cinemakers for the beauty and importance their culture offers. We daresay that Marajo das Letras could be considered an effective allegory of human experience: how does everylife experience fuel your creative process to address your choices regarding the themes you explore in your films? As a designer I remain constantly attentive to popular visual manifestations, and also to the ways of living that are being erased by contemporaneity. I believe that they reveal a truth of the Brazilian being that we do not always see. It is a passion that moves me. I am a designer who left a great city to live in the Amazon, and I am grateful to this, grateful to everything I have learned, to the women I met in the Amazon, to the true authentic Brazil that opened up for me. Your documentary has been presented and screened in several occasions: how much

Women Cinemakers importance has for you the feedback that you receive in the festival circuit? And how do you feel previewing a film before an audience? The screenings are very revealing, as each shows me new cultural layers that I myself had not previously realized. It is very different to show the film in my city, where people are already familiar and immersed in this culture, than to exhibit it in the different realities of the south of the country or even Europe. These occasions give me opportunities to reveal this important culture to an audience that ignored it, so I feel great pride in having managed to make the film. The way the audience react is very important, is the way I learn how successfully I achieved my goals. Before ending this conversation we want to use this opportunity to ask you to

Women Cinemakers express your view on the future of women in cinema. For more than half a century women have been discouraged from getting behind the camera, however in the last decades there are signs that something is changing. What's your view on the future of women in cinema? Women can do anything, but they have to fight much harder to get what they want, so I believe womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s production has a special strength. Although cinema is a predominantly male-dominated area, I know and admire women directors, photographers, publishers, producers that have opened the way for other women in the area. The change has already happened; men are the ones who have not noticed it completely. Women are gradually occupying spaces in filming sets, I know female groups of filmmakers who help push each other. The future still requires a lot of effort and

Women Cinemakers struggle, especially in relation to financing, but the spaces are opening up for women, and there is no turning back. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Fernanda. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? After two documentaries based on very structured interviews, the project for the next film is going to be a narrative of my experience of seeking these professionals in the most distant cities. An "on the road", or rather "on the river" narrative of the researcher and her search. In relation to my work as a director, I still have a lot to learn, and I see each future experience as a great learning opportunity. An interview by Francis L. Quettier and Dora S. Tennant womencinemaker@berlin.com